The Fox and the Dragon
by Deus Swiftblade
Summary: She was a hero, but she was forced to leave her home. She found herself in a different land. She found a place to work her days away. Until she ended up in the dungeon with only a man on the other side of the wall for company. The place was called Duskendale and the man's name was Aerys. Oneshot


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or A Song of Ice and Fire.

The Fox and the Dragon

"Talking"

" _Thinking"_

 **Barristan**

(Location: Duskendale)

He moved quietly through the prison, eyes looking at each of the cell to see if it held his king or not. The siege of Duskendale had been at a stalemate for far too long. Lord Tywin could not besiege the city, otherwise Lord Darklyn kill the king. But if the Hand besieged the city, it would fall easily. It all rested on the welfare of the king.

His steps echoed softly against the floor, the torches on the walls the only source of light in the prison. He had snuck into Duskendale and into the Dun Fort to find his king and he was hoping that he was close. If the king was not in the prison, finding him and getting him out would be a lot more complicated.

But as luck would have it, the king was in the prison. He was in the cell almost to the back end. "Your Grace?" Barristan whispered quietly through the bars of the cell.

King Aerys turned his head to look at where the voice had come from. The time spent in the prison had not been good to him. His hair was tangled and long and there was a small sense of hopelessness in his eyes. Yet, curiously enough, he was holding onto a hand that came out from a hole in the wall behind him. "Ser Barristan, is that you?" he said in a hopeful voice.

"It is, my king. I have come to free you." He had taken one of the rings of keys from the guardroom so he would not have to try and strike the lock off with his sword. He quickly found the key he was looking for and unlocked the cell door, opening it wide. "We must go."

To his surprise, the king did not move from where he sat. "How do I not know this is not some form of trickery?" he demanded.

"Your Grace, I have snuck into the Dun Fort to rescue you. I would not deceive you," his Kingsguard protested.

King Aerys did not look like he believed what he was hearing, but then another voice spoke out. It was not in the tongue of Westeros nor was it any of the languages of Essos. It was a strange, different tongue that was unlike any Barristan had heard, but he was even more surprised when the king replied in the same language. There was what sounded like short sentences and it became apparent that the king had difficulty with some of the words.

But then the talking stopped and the king turned back to him. "If you are Ser Barristan, then you will know how it was you earned the name of the Bold," King Aerys said to him.

That he did know and the memory was still something he treasured. "It was given to me by your uncle, Prince Duncan the Small, when I had attended a tourney dressed as a mystery knight at the age of the ten. He was the only one who jousted against me when others laughed and would later call me a bold boy."

The king seemed to relax slightly when he heard the answer. "Then it truly is you, Ser Barristan."

"Please, your Grace, we must get you out of Duskendale. Lord Tywin is besieging the city but will not move in to take it with your life in jeopardy."

"That has never stopped Tywin before, why should it now?" the king muttered to himself, a frown appearing on his face.

"King Aerys, we must go."

The voice spoke again and when it had finished speaking, Aerys turned to look at the wall and the hand he was holding. "I will not leave you," he said.

"Don't be a baka, Aerys," the voice replied, this time in the language of Westeros (but with an accent). "This is your chance to get out, so get out. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"I will not leave you behind." He looked back at Barristan. "She comes with us, Ser Barristan."

The Kingsguard had recognized that the voice, despite the accent, was a woman's voice, which was why he was not surprised by the king's first word. "Your Grace, if the lady wishes for you to go without her—" he began to say.

"She comes with us!" the king all but shouted. It was obvious that he was trying to restrain himself, but his voice still echoed in the prison.

"As you command, your Grace." He went over to the next cell and quickly opened the door.

The person who was sitting on the floor of the cell stood up. Barristan gasped quietly in small surprise. Despite the raggedness of her clothes, he looked upon a beauty. "Thanks for that," she said to him, walking up to and then passed him. She went to the king's cell and took hold of him, pulling him up to his feet. "You okay, Aerys?" she asked him.

"Yes, I am," he answered, sounding grateful to be near her.

"Good." She turned her attention back to Barristan. "Oi, do you have like a knife or a dagger I could borrow?"

"Yes," he answered. "But there is no need to worry, my lady. I will protect you."

To his surprise, she wrinkled her nose at those words. "Do I look like I'm helpless? Just give me that weapon already. You're going to need help getting out of here."

"Do as she says, Ser Barristan, and give her the weapon," his king ordered him.

He did as he was bidden, pulled out his dagger, and held it out for her. She took it and held it in a grip that showed that she knew how to properly wield it. "Okay, you take the front and lead us out the same way you came in. I'll keep Aerys guarded."

He would've protested, but she had already stepped in front of his king and held the weapon at the ready. The king stayed close to her and it was obvious that he would not leave her side. So he did as he was told and led them out of the prison of Duskendale.

 **Rhaella**

(Location: Red Keep)

She did not know what to make of what she had seen or heard of her king's (and brother's) new mistress. She had met the woman when Aerys returned from Duskendale with Lord Tywin and the army. She had been walking when the others had been riding and the first words out of her mouth had been "Damn, Aerys. This place is huge!" Oddly enough, that had gotten a laugh from her husband.

Now there were rumors that the king was sleeping with a whore he had found in Duskendale, one that had offered her body to satisfy and comfort him, in exchange for a place at court. She would not have it. She would find this woman and have her leave the Red Keep and King's Landing.

"Where is the king?" she asked as she approached the hall of the Small Council, her question being directed to one of the Kingsguard standing outside the door. "Is he inside?"

"My queen, he is not. Your son sits in his stead," the Kingsguard answered.

"Then where is the king?" she asked, finally recognizing him as Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning and Rhaegar's closest friend.

"He is in the practice yard…with her," he added with some hesitation, knowing who he was speaking to.

"Thank you, Ser Arthur." She walked away from him and the hall of the Small Council. She knew where to find the practice yard and she found it quickly enough. But then she came upon a most peculiar sight.

She saw her brother, king, and husband stripped to his smallclothes, holding himself against the earth by the tips of his toes and his hands, and was pushing down against the earth. She could see the sweat on his head, so it must be an effort to do whatever it was he was doing. The woman stood over him and said a number every time he pushed up from the earth. "And that's 50!" she declared. At those words, the king of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros fell to the ground and rolled over to his back, panting like a thirsty dog. "Nice going, Aerys," she told him with a smile.

Rhaella took that opportunity to walk forward, getting their attention. Aerys lifted his head and looked at her approach. "My king," she said with a curtsy. "May I talk to your…lady friend privately?"

"Hey, I've got a name," the woman said to her. "It's Uzumaki Naruko and I ain't no lady. But sure, we can talk." She turned to look at the king. "Go take that hot bath, Aerys. You've earned it today."

He got from where he laid on the earth and walked away without saying anything, only giving a nod of thanks to the foreign woman. Rhaella turned and walked away as well, going in a different direction. She heard the woman follow her and she did not stop until they reached her chambers in the Maidenvault. "So what do you want to talk about, Rhaella?" the woman asked her.

Rhaella eyed her as she stood before her. The queen of Westeros could admit that she was a beautiful woman. Long flowing hair that was the color of the sun was tied behind her in a high ponytail and also framed a heart-shaped face. Her eyes were like two deep blue pools of water, inviting anyone who looked at them to come closer. Six whisker-like birthmarks were lined on her cheeks, three to each side, giving her an exotic touch. Her figure was womanly, but there were also strength and power beneath that tanned skin. She was not wearing a dress, as one might expect from a lady. Instead, she was dressed like a man, except her leggings were loose and her doublet was not tight.

But she did not seem to comprehend the idea of protocol. "I am the Queen of Westeros," she told the foreigner. "You will address me as your Grace."

"If you wanted to be the Queen of Westeros when we spoke, we would be speaking in public. Instead, we're here, which means you wanted to talk as Rhaella," she replied, sitting in a chair and lounging in it. "So what do you want to talk about?"

"I do not wish to talk about anything, I want you to leave," Rhaella ordered her, deciding to be just as blunt as she was.

But she said something that surprised her. "No."

That single word made her angry. "Have you not heard the rumors?" she demanded.

The woman laughed. "Which rumor? The one where I snuck into the prison of Duskendale and broke him out because I loved him? The one that says I'm a whore who got lucky? There are plenty of rumors flying about."

That surprised Rhaella. She had thought that she didn't hear any of those rumors. Clearly, she was not a complete fool. "If you have heard the rumors, why have you not removed yourself from court? Do you not realize how this could damage the Iron Throne?"

She snorted an unladylike snort. "Fuck the Iron Throne, there's no way I'm abandoning Aerys like that," she declared. "Do you not realize how long he spent in that prison while the rest of you waited outside the gates? I was the one who was keeping him sane and calm during that entire time. I'm the reason all those children are alive."

Rhaella had no reply to that, as she had a point. After the king had been freed, all members of House Darklyn had been executed, save for the children who were now living in the Red Keep as playmates to her youngest son. "Why were you in the prison in the first place?" she asked, trying a different tactic and get some insight on her.

"I was working as a maid in the Dun Fort," she said with a shrug of her shoulder. "Darklyn's wife wanted me. She came to me one day and told me to attend her in bed that night. I told her no and when she ordered me to attend, I told her to fuck off. So she went to her husband and told me I did something that deserved getting thrown into prison. I must've been in there two or three weeks or so before Aerys was put in the cell next to mine."

"And what did you do that earned the king's favor?"

"I talked to him like he was a person, not a king or a prisoner. I told him my name, he gave me his, and we talked. I taught him some of my language and when the nights got too cold, I got into his cell and we shared body warmth, that's how we slept together, nothing more."

"I don't believe you." Rhaella knew that there was something else there.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Kami, you people are thick-headed. Let me put it to you this, Rhaella: I'm the one thing Aerys didn't have before."

"And what would that be?" the queen of Westeros challenged her.

"A friend that cares for him, not the crown or the seat he polishes his butt with," she answered. She stood up from her seat. "You're his queen, wife, and sister. I would've thought you would be one of them. But I guess you're just like some of those people I see hanging around here."

"I am nothing like them," Rhaella said in reply. Those people were fawners and bootlickers who tried everything they could to get a scrap of the king's favor.

"Then why do you flinch every time he goes near you?" she asked, turning around and walking out of the room.

Rhaella stared at the door, thinking about what she had said. _"She's a fool,"_ she declared to herself. But strangely enough, some of the things the woman said made sense. The king and his Hand had been friends during their childhood, but even Lord Tywin had the interests of his family. This woman didn't seem to have that problem. She was still a fool.

 **Elia**

(Location: Red Keep)

Her wedding to Prince Rhaegar Targaryen would most likely be one to be sung about. Every single noble family that could have attended did attend. Tywin Lannister, who had once refused to marry her to his firstborn son, now stood in attendance (most likely because he had to. She had no doubts that he would disappear as soon as he was able).

She had been wedded to the Prince of Dragonstone in the Great Sept of Baelor and now the wedding feast was inside the Red Keep itself. Tables of great length and size filled the throne room and each seat had someone sitting on it. Food and drink were plentiful and good humor was enjoyed all around. Many toasts were made to the bride and the groom, each was received with happy shouts and cheers.

"You throw a grand feast, my lord husband," she told Rhaegar, leaning into his side so only he could hear her words.

"I am only the host, my lady wife," he replied in the same level of voice. "When it came time for preparations of the wedding and feast, they told me to stay out of the way because I was likely to make a mess of things." His words made her laugh. For all of his silence, her new husband had a sense of humor.

She looked out at the hall. Despite it being full, there was one person that wasn't there. "Where is the king?"

"I… do not know," he admitted. "He had said that he would attend, but I do not see him amongst the nobles here."

"Is he unwell?"

"No, he is well. I will admit his…lady friend has been most helpful in regards to his health."

She became interested at those words. She and the rest of Dorne had heard of this woman. There were plenty of different tales about her, like the one of her being a septa who snuck into the prison and stayed with the king because it was her holy duty. But they didn't give her an actual picture of the woman. "Can you tell me about her?" she dared to ask him.

"I am afraid that there is not much to tell. I do not associate much with her and she tends to keep to my father. There are times when my father believes that there are plots against him and she helps him keep his sanity."

"His Grace, King Aerys, the Second of his Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm!" the herald at the doors announced loudly. Everyone turned their heads to see the king of Westeros walk in with surprise in their eyes.

Elia watched in silence as the king walked up to the high table with Ser Jon Darry and her own uncle, Prince Lewyn Martell following in his wake. She had heard stories of how the king looked more like a ragged beggar then a king, but it was obvious that this was not true. His hair was groomed, which allowed his crown to sit easily on his head, and he wore the finest clothes that could be made and worn. But there was something in his eyes that made her look again. It was something that looked contained, but still dangerous.

"Father," Prince Rhaegar said as he stood up from his chair. She followed his example and stood up as well. "I did not expect you to come."

"Do you mean to say that a father is not allowed to attend his son's wedding?" the king asked with a sharp tone in his voice. All around them, the feast began to go on and the people's attention turned away from the high table (at least, obviously).

"I did not mean that. I simply believed that you would be too busy to attend," he said easily and quickly. Elia had a feeling that he was used to saying such words. "Please Father, take a seat and enjoy the feast."

Just then, a loud smashing sound echoed through the hall and was followed by a crashing sound. Heads turned to one of the lower tables to see the very woman Elia had asked about standing over Oberyn, who was slumped unconscious on a table with pieces of a broken mug lying all around him.

The woman turned and walked up to the high table, all eyes following her confident swagger. "Hey, that baka your aniki?" she asked, gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb at Oberyn.

"I beg your pardon?" Elia asked confused by the strange words that she heard.

"She's asking if that idiot is your brother," King Aerys said to her. She could tell by the subtle smirk that he knew that it was.

She had to tread lightly, even though her brother had just been insulted. "Yes, that is Oberyn Martell, my brother." People who did not see who had been struck now began to whisper about the Red Viper.

But the woman did not look to be impressed by those words. "When he wakes up, tell him that the next time he feels like playing grab-ass, I'll break more than his nose and his arm. And I won't care if he's drunk or not," she declared. Then she turned her attention to the king. "Hey, Aerys, glad to see that you decided to show up. I told you that it was a good idea to get out some more."

To Elia's surprise the king, who had a slight frown from his son's first words tonight, smiled at her. "I did say that I would be here, I had to finish up a plan I was working on," he told her.

"Sure you were," she said with a grin before turning her attention to the Kingsguard. "You guys can leave now; I'll keep an eye on him." Ser Jon nodded briefly and turned to walk to a position of watch, Elia's uncle following him. Once they gone, the lady took the king by the hand. "Come on, it's more fun down here."

They walked away from the high table to the lower tables, where things were much rowdier. They sat down at a different table then the one she was at before. From what Elia could see of the table, the people there were surprised and awed to have the king sit amongst them. But after a few minutes those feelings disappeared and they treated him like he was one of them.

But even though she was surprised to see the king sitting amongst people who could've been the smallfolk, she was more intrigued by the lady who sat at his side and treated him not as a king but as a person. With a little bit of teaching and talk, she could make quite the Dornishwoman.

 **Arthur**

(Location: Red Keep)

"Your Grace, this is outrageous!" a nobleman from the Stormlands protested as he stood before the Iron Throne. Arthur stood in front of him at the steps leading up to the throne and the king who sat on it, saying nothing and watching everything.

"And how is this outrageous?" King Aerys asked him as he sat carefully on the Iron Throne so he would not cut himself in it. Even though the Sword of the Morning knew that there was the look in the king's eyes, the one that looked for plotters and turncloaks in every shadow. He believed that if Lady Naruko wasn't the king's friend and at his side practically every moment, the king would be lot more audible with his looks. She had that calming effect on him.

"You are trampling on rights that have been the rights of the highborn for generations!" the nobleman told him, his family standing alongside him in an effort to show support.

"You would be wrong, I am protecting the rights of my smallfolk, as they live in the same kingdom you and I do. Your eldest son wished to lay with one of the maids in your castle and when she refused his advances, he raped her. By the laws set down by my grandfather, King Aegon V, that is a crime punishable by death."

"Your Hand, Lord Tywin, repealed those laws!"

"My Hand erred greatly in that matter. Those laws are being reinstated."

That was when the son decided to open his mouth. "She wanted it! And what should it matter? She's only a maid. It's nothing to be concerned of!" he all but shouted.

The next person who spoke was not the king, but Lady Naruko. "And what exactly makes her different from you?" she asked as she walked down the steps and stood before the family. She wore her normal clothing and had her hair done simply in two ponytails, one on each side of her head. "Besides the obvious that is," she amended, getting a snigger of laughter from the court.

The son's neck grew red from anger. "She's a peasant; I am from a noble family that can trace its lineage back several generations."

"Irrelevant," she said, surprising the court. Arthur could understand what they felt. How could she just dismiss their lineage like that? It was like she was dismissing who they were. "She's a person, just like you."

"She wanted it!" he repeated himself.

"No, she didn't," she said to him. "I spoke to her myself when I heard of this crime."

He scoffed. "I'm sure she told you a tale that made you weep at the end of it. Peasants do that all the time."

"It was no tale. She was going to marry a man from the village around your castle, a man she had known and played with together as children."

"I doubt it. She's a maid, so she's a whore as well. She enjoyed what I gave her."

Even though he could see it, Arthur could probably guess the expression that was on Lady Naruko's face. "She was not a whore. You took her maidenhood."

That drew a few looks of distaste and/or disgust from the court, but the son saw none of it. "What difference would that make?"

"What if it was you who were raped?" she asked him.

He snorted. "It would not happen, I'm not a peasant. The smallfolk live on my father's land at our whim. They are ours."

"He's right," his sister, the middle daughter of three agreed. "What they do is by our wish and our command."

Lady Naruko looked at the daughter, then at the mother. Then she looked at the father and the eldest son. "They are not and I think it's time to remind your family about how to treat them with respect."

The eldest son sneered openly at her. "And how would you do that?" He looked her over with naked lust in his eyes. "Perhaps you're going to your body to teach me respect. I make no guarantees that I will learn, but I'm sure that my family will enjoy you greatly."

The silence in the court that followed his statement was palpable. Arthur took a step forward and reached for his sword, only to be stopped by a look from Lady Naruko. _"She can protect herself,"_ he reminded himself, taking that step back and removed his hand from Dawn.

She turned back around and walked back up the steps to stand beside the Iron Throne. "You might want to consider a change of punishment, Aerys," she said to the king. "It seems that the entire family shares the belief of the eldest son."

The Sword of the Morning could hear the king stand up from the Iron Throne. "My lord, I have decided a change of punishment is indeed," he said to the head of the family. "Your son is still to be executed, but I also strip you of any titles, lands, and names that you might hold. You and the rest of your sons will be sent immediately to the Wall to join the Night's Watch. Your wife and your daughters will work in the Red Keep as scullery maids." He looked at the commander of the Watch. "Take them away."

The men of the Watch of King's Landing obeyed his command, stepping in around the once noble family and all but forced them out of the hall. The rest of the court looked on in silence. Arthur could tell that they kept their silence so they did not join them. But he had a feeling that whispers of the king inheriting the madness of his house would start soon. But on the other hand, the smallfolk had been defended, something that was rare in Westeros.

The king sat back down on the throne. "Does anyone object to the laws made by my grandfather?" he asked aloud. No one said a word and Arthur knew that meant that just because they didn't disagreed, didn't mean they would like it. But the king was satisfied. "Good. Court is done for the day," he declared.

As the people that made up the court of King Aerys began to leave the hall of the Iron Throne, Arthur saw someone moving against the flow of the people, working his way slowly to the throne and to the king. He strode forward and drew Dawn. "Hold! You, ser, will reveal yourself!" he declared in a loud voice, stopping the flow of the court.

The person stepped forward, out of the crowd and into the sight of the Iron Thorne, revealing himself to be a man who did not look like he was from Westeros. He may have been from Essos, if it were not for the sight of his clothes, which consisted of blue leggings and matching doublet beneath a green jerkin-like piece of clothing. He wore a blue headband on his brow with a plate of metal that had a sigil inscribed upon it. Even with the scar on his nose, he looked to be a gentle sort of person.

"Forgive me," he said in a semi-thick accent. "I did not wish to make a scene. I had only to wish to see an old student of mine."

To his surprise and the surprise of everyone who was still there, Lady Naruko did something completely unexpected. She let out a great cry of joy, ran straight at the man, and enveloped him in a bear-crushing hug. She began to chatter excitedly and the man seemed amused as he listened. When she stopped to take a breath, he spoke in the language of Westeros. "Perhaps you should introduce me to the rest of the people here first?"

She stopped, blinked, and then grinned apologetically. "Right, sorry," she said, scratching the back of her head, something Arthur had never seen her do.

"You know this man, Naruko?" the king asked and the Sword of the Morning could hear something in his voice, something that said he was standing on the edge and he might fall if he heard an answer he did not want to hear. The rest of the court must've heard it too because they left quickly.

He did not know whether Lady Naruko heard that something or not, but she did not show it in her voice. "This is Iruka-sensei," she said with a big grin on her face. "He was one of my first senseis when I was a kid."

" _When was she a goat?"_ Arthur wondered to himself, but still did not say anything.

"My lady," Prince Rhaegar said from where he stood. "I know you have tried to teach me your language, but I am afraid I do not know the word you have just used."

"I do," King Aerys said, that something in his voice disappearing. "Sensei means teacher. This man taught her in her youth."

The man bowed his head. "Hai, I did teach Naruko when she attended the Academy."

"Then you had taught a truly talented person," Queen Rhaella said. Arthur did not know why she would say something like that when she treated Lady Naruko with courtesy and nothing else.

But to the surprise to everyone there, the two of them laughed at that. "You couldn't have been more wrong, Rhaella," Lady Naruko told her. "I was possibly the worst student he ever had. I failed to graduate from the Academy three times."

"Yes, and you ended up breaking into the Hokage building and stealing the Scroll of Seals in order to graduate," the man beside her said.

Arthur could see her grimace. "Are you ever going to forget about that?" she asked with a tone that sounded pleading to him. He just gave her a look. "Right, forget I asked."

"So, are there any pranks that I need to be aware of?"

Now it was her turn to give the look. "What? Can't you trust your old student to not have done any pranking whatsoever when she's gone someplace different?"

"Naruko…" he said the name like it was a warning while matching her look.

It was obvious that they had done this several times before; it was probably second-nature to them. She eventually gave up. "Alright, alright, I may have tied a few people to their horses when they weren't looking and then spooked the horses. But they needed it!"

"Is that all?"

"Well…I probably might've also stolen a lot of underwear from the castle and spread it around in the city," she added.

"That was you?" Rhaella demanded. "Have you no idea of the chaos you caused with that stunt?"

"Oh come on, it was funny! You guys were being too grim and serious at the time; I had to do something that would make you laugh."

"And laugh we did," King Aerys remarked as he came down from the Iron Throne and stood before the two foreigners. He said something in Lady Naruko's tongue to the man, probably a greeting.

The man called Iruka seemed surprised to hear it and responded in kind. "Your skill with our language is most impressive," he finished in the language of the Seven Kingdoms.

"Thank you, I had an excellent teacher," the king replied with a genuine smile as he looked at Naruko.

 **Tyrion**

The king had come to Casterly Rock and that meant that he had to stay out of sight. If he was seen, Father would be angry. So he stayed out of the way, hiding in his rooms and when he could leave, the side corridors.

It had worked for a day until he had run into someone, literally. As he fell down on his bottom, he could only look up at the person he had hit. It was a girl with hair that was the same color as Father, Cersei, and Jaime had but she had blue eyes instead of green. "Hey, you okay?" she asked, leaning down to look at him.

"I…I'm fine," he said a little uncertainly.

"You sure?" she asked again.

"I am fine, my lady." He had to remember his manners.

But to his surprise, she snorted. "Lady?" she repeated. "Trust me, kid. I'm not a lady."

"But you're dressed up like one," he protested, looking at the dress she was wearing.

"Yeah, Aerys told me to dress nicely for the party tonight," she remarked. "Well, it was more like an attempt at convincing me. Guess it worked, I'm wearing the damn thing."

"If you're not a lady, then what are you?" Tyrion asked her.

There was something foxlike about her grin. "I'm a lord."

He frowned. "You can't be a lord, you're not a man."

"The Lord of the Pranks recognizes no gender, for pranking requires none," she declared in a lofty tone.

"The Lord of the Pranks?" he repeated, more curious then confused know. He might not have his brother's height or skill with the sword, but he did have his brain and he was curious about things.

"Oh don't tell me you guys in Westeros have never heard of the Lord of the Pranks?" she asked, sounding a little offended.

"No," he said with a shake of his head.

"Well then, I have a lot to tell you on the way to the party. Come on." She started walking forward, only to stop when she saw he hadn't move.

"I can't go," he told her, looking down at the floor. "My father won't like it if I show myself." All of a sudden, he found himself up in the air and then sitting on her shoulders.

"I should also mention that the Lord of the Pranks doesn't take no for an answer lightly," she said to him, her hands holding onto his legs. "So come on, we're going." She walked down the hall with him on her shoulders. As they walked, she told him story after story, ones that made him laugh.

 **Lyanna**

(Location: Harrenhal)

She had thought to find some adventure when she and her brothers came south for Lord Whent's tourney. Instead, she was stuck in a sewing circle with the Princess Elia Martell, her ladies-in-waiting, and Cersei Lannister. And she was _bored_.

She had tried to just focus on her sewing but she could feel the eyes on her. "What?" she demanded as she looked up at the rest of the women in the room. "Is there something you need?"

"We just wish to know our newest member," Ashara Dayne said easily enough and with a smile on her face. "It's not often we get ladies from the North."

"For good reason," Cersei remarked with a poisonous smirk.

Lyanna wanted to punch that smile off of her, but the princess spoke. "Ashara, Cersei, do not be rude to Lady Lyanna. I am sure she is still surprised by the fact we are all looking at her and not amongst ourselves."

"No, I'm just bored," she told the princess. "I mean, we're in _Harrenhal_ , the biggest castle in the Seven Kingdoms, and we're just sitting around sewing. I would rather explore."

To her surprise, Princess Elia laughed. "What a breath of fresh air you are, my lady," she declared. "I have half a mind to steal you away from your betrothed and keep you in King's Landing as one of my ladies-in-waiting." That didn't sit well with Lyanna. She would rather go back North then go south to either Robert Baratheon or Elia Martell (although, the princess would be the lesser of two evils).

The door to the room opened and perhaps the most infamous woman in Westeros stepped in. "Hey, hime," the woman known as Naruko greeted the princess casually. "Trying to insult people while also being polite again?"

"On the contrary, Naruko," Princess Elia said, her tone going from warm to cool. "I was just saying that I think that Lyanna Stark would be much more better suited for King's Landing then Storm's End."

The foreign woman looked at her and Lyanna felt like she was being thoroughly examined. "I think she would rather run away then go with either of those options," she finally stated. "How about it, ōkami?" she said to Lyanna. "Would you rather go north then south?"

"How could you tell?" she asked the blonde woman. "And what did you call me?"

"You looked like you wanted to run away when she listed the options. And I called you a wolf." He looked over at Cersei. "How's that idiot brother of yours doing?"

She frowned at those words. "I have no idiots for brothers," she replied crossly.

"Of course you do, he's the one I had to pull out of the fight against the Smiling Knight before he got himself killed."

"You're speaking of Ser Jaime Lannister," Lyanna said, bringing the attention back to her. "He's coming to Harrenhal to join the Kingsguard."

"Yep, that idiot," Naruko said offhandedly.

"Naruko, do you still know that my brother is mad at you because of that stunt you pulled with the Smiling Knight?" Ashara asked her, her smile gone and her eyes staring straight at the blonde.

"Every time we've passed one another in the Red Keep," she replied. "I wish Hoshi would just get over it. I saved him from his own stupidity."

"You stabbed the outlaw in the back with a knife after his sword had broken and Arthur had stopped the fight to allow him to get a new one."

"Which was stupid beyond belief," the foreign woman said with a roll of her eyes.

"It was dishonorable."

"It was the battlefield. If the opponent you're facing has lost or destroyed his own weapon, you do not stop the fight so he can get a replacement, you kill him. Hoshi should've recognized that much."

"Who is Hoshi?" Lyanna asked, almost stumbling over the word.

The other ladies in the room (with the exception of the princess) rolled their eyes at her like she was some country bumpkin. "She's referring to my brother, Ser Arthur. The word for star in her language is hoshi and that's what she calls him."

Oh, that made sense to her. She looked back down to her sewing when the foreign blonde spoke again. "Oi, ōkami, eyes up." She looked up to see the woman standing in front of her. "Yeah, I'm talking to you. I need you to do something for me."

"What's that?" she asked, looking her straight in the eye. She was the blood of the wolf and she would not show fear to her.

"Any chance you can help me put this stuff in a braid like yours," Naruko asked, pointing at her own hair. The other ladies in the room frowned at that. They all had elaborate hairstyles of the south while Lyanna's was just a simple braid.

"Of course," she answered. She didn't really have anyone except herself to practice up in the North, but she was sure that she could do it.

"Good." The woman grabbed a chair and sat down on it. She pulled free the restraints in her hair that the two tails up off so her hair fell down her back in a golden shower that made the she-wolf feel slightly envious. But she gathered up the hair and started braiding it together. They sat in silence for a moment and then Naruko spoke again. "You've got questions, girl. Go ahead and ask them."

Lyanna was surprised that she could tell, but how could she refuse an offer like that. "Do you and Princess Elia not like each other?" She could feel the princess's eyes on her after the question was spoken, but she had heard the tone she used when Naruko came into the room and wanted to know.

"Nah, nothing like that," Naruko said dismissively. "At one point after her wedding, she tried to teach me a few things, except she soon learned that between the two of us, she was the amateur and I was the master. She's never liked that."

"I am right here, Naruko," Elia said from where she sat. "Kindly don't talk about me like I'm not in the room."

"Hey, I would've been happy to have you as a friend, Elia. You're the one who made the mistake of trying to be allies first. Besides, we get along well enough, don't we?" She looked back at Lyanna. "Keep on talking, ōkami. We might as well have something to talk about."

"Do you know the Kingsguard well?" Lyanna asked, figuring that was a safe subject.

"Well enough to know that they get pissed when I steal Aerys away for some fun. They really need to relax when they know it's me. Aerys and I have started running the clock to see how long it will take them to find us. So far, the record is about a week when I took him fishing in the Riverlands."

"It is the duty of the Kingsguard to protect and defend the king," Cersei said with an overbearing tone in her voice.

"We are well aware of the fact that your brother's joining the Kingsguard, Cersei," Naruko told her. "You can shut up about it now."

She recoiled away like the words had actually struck her. "Do you know who my father is?" she demanded.

"Yes, I see him daily. Being his daughter doesn't impress me. Where I'm from, merit means more than blood."

"What does that mean?" Lyanna asked as she continued to braid the hair. "You would rather look at the man rather than his family?" She could understand the reasoning for the North was similar, but they looked at the family as well.

"Let me put it to you this way, ōkami," the blonde said, turning her head slightly to look at her. "If I had to choose between a man who came from a family who can trace their lineage back several generation but had never done anything worth mentioning, and a man who came from the streets but had worked his ass off to get where he was and earn respect, I would go with the latter every time. I could tell you guys that I am descended from great warriors and leaders and where I'm from, people would expect me to back up my claims."

"So you're not descended from great warriors and leaders?" asked one of the younger ladies-in-waiting, another noble daughter from Dorne.

"When did I say that I wasn't?" she asked back. "I'm a warrior too, and I can back it up."

"Women can fight in your country?" Lyanna asked. If it was true, then that was a place she wanted to go to someday.

"Yeah, we can be." Again, she looked back at her. "I saw your little brawl with those squires, by the way. Your form was a little sloppy and crude, but you know how to swing a sword. I'm guessing that you have no intention of being a lady?"

"That's right," Lyanna said with a proud smile. "I want to be a warrior like my brothers and wield a sword, not sit around sewing stuff and talking about boring things." The rest of the ladies (with the exception of Princess Elia, oddly) looked insulted at her words, probably because they were doing just what she hated.

"There's more to a life of the warrior then just swinging a sword around, ōkami," Naruko told her, her voice taking a particular tone. "It's not all fun and playtime."

"I know of the hardships of fighting," she replied. She wasn't stupid.

"No, I don't think you do." Her hands disappeared from her sides, going to her torso. With a few flicks of her hands, her shirt had fallen to the ground, revealing black smallclothes she wore beneath (shocking the younger ladies there). "Feel," she ordered Lyanna, holding her arms out wide.

Lyanna hesitated for a moment but soon did as she was told. She took one of her hands away from the hair she had been braiding, placed it on the right arm, and began moving it down, feeling everything. Even though her arms had looked womanly from a distance, she could feel the muscles beneath the tanned skin and she could feel the power that they held. Her eyes could see the faint scars that were on her arm and, having seen enough on men in Winterfell, realized that some of them were more than a few years old.

"I've worked hard since I was twelve to get where I am now," Naruko said in a quiet but serious voice. "This is what a warrior's life is like."

The she-wolf could see what she was talking about, in the muscles, in the scars, and even in the callouses on her hands. And she respected the woman for what she had shown and said. She withdrew her hand and went back to the hair, finishing it all up. "You're done," she said, taking her hands away from the blonde's head.

"Thanks," Naruko said as she stood up from the chair. She drew a knife from out of a pocket and with a swing of it, cut the braid off. It fell to the ground with a barely audible _thump_.

Everyone in the room stared at her like she was mad. "Why would you do something like that?" Ashara demanded, looking down at the cut braid and then up at her.

"Felt like having shorter hair again," the now shorter-haired blonde replied with ease as she put the knife away and her hand through her hair, making sure there was nothing loose. She bent down and picked up her shirt. "Thanks for that, ōkami," she told Lyanna before heading out the door.

 **Ashara**

(Location: Harrenhal)

When the man walked into the Great Hall, the feasting died down and everyone looked at him. On his doublet was the same crest of the mystery knight who had appeared in the finals of the tourney and defeated every competitor, including the prince.

Everyone had been surprised to see another mystery knight show up at the tourney, even after the Knight of the Laughing Tree had mysteriously vanished. They were all surprised again when he defeated everyone and was given the crown of the queen of love and beauty. He had urged his horse to the royal box and everyone thought that he would crown Elia.

Until the foreign woman who claimed to be the king's friend stood up from her seat and spoke rapidly in her foreign tongue. Ashara had no idea what she said, but the mystery knight sat on his horse silence as she spoke and when she was done, he flicked the laurel into the air and cut it in half as it fell to the ground with his sword, shocking everyone.

And now, that knight was apparently standing before the table of the king. Ashara could see that he was handsome, in a tall dark sort of way. There was a kind of feeling that rolled off of him, a quiet confidence that made everyone look at him a second time. "I thought you would be here," he said, looking at Naruko. "You were never one to pass up on free food."

Naruko snorted an unladylike snort. "I guess I was right when I figured you learned the Common Tongue. How else were you able to figure out what a joust was?"

"You cut your hair again."

"You managed to stop making yours look like the rear of a duck, congratulations." Suddenly, she threw a knife at him with blinding speed. But to the surprise of everyone, he got it with ease. The two of them stared down the other, even when she got out of her chair, leapt over the table, and walked up to him. Then she grinned and pulled him into a hug. "It's good to see you again, you bastard!" she declared loudly. She broke free of the hug and turned to face the king. "Hey, Aerys, come meet one of my oldest friends, Sasuke!" she introduced the man beside her. "Sasuke, this guy's the ruler of this continent, King Aerys."

"How did the two of you meet?" he asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders. "We had cells next to each other in prison and I kept him going until someone came to rescue him."

He rolled his eyes. "After all these years, you're still getting yourself into idiotic situations, dobe."

"Oh, shut up, teme," she said with a smile on her face. "Come on, take a seat and get some food. Hey, get a spare chair over here!" she shouted at one of the servants, who quickly did as they were told. The two of them sat beside the king and the prince.

Ashara was close and she could see the stranger much more closely now. She could see that he was handsome as she had thought before. She would talk to this man and flirt with him to see if he would fall to her charms. But before she could, the king spoke. "Naruko, what did you say to him when he was given the laurel today? You spoke too quickly for me to hear the words."

"I told him that if he was going to put the crown on my head, I would punch his face in," she answered, making it sound like nothing was wrong. She continued to speak. "So, how's the married life with Sakura?"

No one there, besides the two of them, knew what that name meant. But if she was hoping to get a reaction out of the tall dark stranger, she was disappointed. "Iruka told you, didn't he?" he said.

"No. But who else would you have married?"

He smiled a little. "Hn, fair enough," he conceded before the smile faded away from his lips. "Naruko, about Iruka, he told me about the argument the two of you—"

"Are there any children that I've been named godmother to?" she asked, cutting him off. The way she did so suddenly and rudely caught the attention of Ashara as well as many others.

" _Interesting,"_ Ashara thought to herself.

"Yes, there's a child. No, we did not name you her godmother," he replied.

"It's a girl?" Naruko replied, seemingly ignoring the fact that she had been slighted.

Her friend of old nodded. "We named her Sarada."

" _So, he's a father too,"_ Ashara thought to herself as she continued to eye the man. It didn't make a difference to her, though. Even married men and fathers looked at her with desire in their eyes.

Naruko must've noticed her looking, for she said in a voice loud enough for only the table to hear, "Knock it off, Ashara. He's married and a father."

"Why, you misjudge me, Lady Naruko," Ashara said lightly and with a pretty smile. "A girl can look, can she not?"

"I don't misjudge you, Ashara. I know you too well for that. So, I'm going to give you one warning, don't even start."

"Or what?" she asked with that smile still on her lips. "What would you do to me?"

The blonde woman smiled back and there was nothing pretty about it. "It's not what I'm going to do, it's what he's going to do," she replied, pointing her thumb at her friend. "What he's going to is wait until you're able to bear a child, then get you pregnant, and once you actually give birth, take the child with him when he goes back home so you will never see it again." A thoughtful expression came across her face. "Although, that would probably be better for the child, seeing as it would be raised with an actual clan name. So by all means, seduce Sasuke to your heart's content."

She was shocked and horrified to hear such words. Thankfully, she wasn't alone in that regard. "If he lays a hand on my sister like that…" her brother began to say, fury coloring his voice.

"I would not," the man known as Sasuke told him calmly and quietly. "Naruko is putting words in my mouth."

"That and I'm making sure that she doesn't do anything stupid," Naruko said. "She's Dornish; she can't keep it in her pants."

He gave her a look. "This is coming from the woman who trained under Jiraiya."

"Shut up and eat your food, teme."

The silence that followed was tense as every Dornishman was glaring at the foreign woman and every woman was now watching the foreign man wearily, fearful that he might do what she said he would do. The only people who weren't affected by it all were Naruko, Sasuke, and the king, who were talking amongst themselves. As the feast went on, the man who won the joust pushed back away from the table and pulled a lute-like instrument from out of nowhere.

He began to play and as he did, the whole hall stopped to listen. The song was only a set of simple strings, unlike any Ashara had heard before. But as the man continued to play the same set of strings again and again, it seemed to tell her about him. They spoke of how much sadness and loneliness he had faced in life. It was even sadder then what Rhaegar had played before and she did not let tears fall down her face at that.

When he was done, he put the instrument away and looked at Naruko. "Happy?" he asked her.

She smiled a warm and gentle smile Ashara had rarely seen on her. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I liked it," she said. "You've got a talent there. You shouldn't let it go to waste."

He rolled his eyes but smiled as well. "Sakura said the same thing." They both shared a chuckle at that.

 **Aerys**

(Location: Red Keep)

Everything was going badly. Half of his kingdom had risen up in rebellion against him for what he and his son had done. He hadn't meant to burn Lord Rickard and his son, but he had just…lost control. If Naruko hadn't been away at the time, he might've kept himself from falling into madness. But now he had a rebellion on his hands and it was just as serious as the Blackfyre Rebellions had been to his forebears.

"Aerys," he heard a voice say his name from the door of his chamber.

He whirled around to see the face he wanted to see. "Naruko," he said with relief. He took a step towards her but stopped short, remembering what had happened the last time they had hugged. "I'm glad to see you again."

"It's okay to hug me, Aerys," she told him. "I'm not fragile."

He wanted to, but he shouldn't. He had found her in a solemn mood one day a few weeks past and by night, she was crying. He found out that had been the day her godfather had died. He comforted her with a hug and then it turned into something…more. "Did you find Rhaegar?" he forced himself to ask.

"Yeah, Gerold and I did. He was hiding out in Dorne of all places. It makes me wonder if Elia was in on this plan of his."

" _So even my gooddaughter would betray me?"_ he thought, thinking her a traitor. But he also realized what those thoughts would lead to and he banished them from his mind. "Then he will lead the army against the rebels."

"What will you do with the rebels if you win?" she asked.

He knew that was a quirk of hers, to use the word "if" rather than "when." But he was used to it. "I will punish them, but not harshly. You know that I did not mean for this to happen." He had even sent a raven out to the Vale, ordering Jon Arryn to bring Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon to King's Landing. It had been his hope to talk to the boys and make sure that war did not follow. But instead, war came in its wake.

"I know that," she told him.

"Naruko, about that night," he began to say.

"Aerys, what happened had happened," she cut him off. "Let's not make things more complicated than they already are. Once the war's over, we can talk about it."

"I shouldn't have done it," he told her. "I shouldn't have shamed you like that. You've been by my side when I needed you the most." She had helped him keep focus on one thing when he needed to be, kept him calm when he felt traitors were lying in wait for him, and when his granddaughter had been born, she was the one who urged him to hold her. "When this is all done, if you want to leave, I will understand."

She laughed and came forward to give him a hug. "Aerys, remember when you listened in on Iruka-sensei and I arguing?" she asked him.

"I do," he answered. They had thrown a small feast for her sensei but during it all, the two guests of honor had disappeared. He had gone looking for them and found them in a secluded hallway, arguing in their own tongue, too fast for him to understand.

"We were talking about how I could go back home again, how they fixed the mistake the Daimyo of my country made. But I refused. I refused to go back because of you. You're my friend and I saw that you needed a friend."

He was glad to hear those words come from her mouth. "Thank you, Naruko," he told her.

"You don't need to thank me, Aerys," she told him as she stepped back, breaking the hug. "I need to get going. Elia's busy with Rhaegar so this is my only chance to get their kids out of King's Landing."

"You make it sound that we will lose this war."

"It's better to be safe then to be sorry, especially when Elia is stubborn about these kinds of things."

"She is a Martell."

"That's not a good thing in this case."

He saw that she was turning to leave and stopped her. "Wait," he said to her, turning for the roll of parchment on the nearby table. "Here, take this. If we do lose, I want you to read it."

"What is it?" she asked as she took it from him.

"Something that will keep my family on the Iron Throne," he answered.

 **Jaime**

(Location: the Red Keep)

He stood on the steps before the Iron Throne when the doors to the throne room banged opened and Lady Naruko strode in with his missing brothers, Eddard Stark, and her foreign friend. She walked with a confidence that made the crowd part before her as she went to the Iron Throne. She stopped before it and looked at the new king sitting on it. "Robert, what the hell is your ass doing on that throne?" she asked him.

"My lady, you are addressing the new king of the Seven Kingdoms, Robert, the First of his name," Jon Arryn told her from where he stood by the throne, the necklace that showed his position as Hand of the King around his neck.

"I've got something here that will protest that," she replied, her hand slipping into a pocket and pulling out a scroll that had the broken Targaryen seal hanging from it. She opened the scroll and began to read aloud, "I, Aerys of the House Targaryen, the Second of my name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, hereby declare that in the event of my death, Naruko Uzumaki is to reign over the Seven Kingdoms as regent until her choice of my blood has come of age."

No one said a word as she put the scroll away, not until the new king began to laugh. "I don't think you need to worry about being a regent, Lady Naruko. Not when there are no more dragonspawn left in this world," he told her.

She smiled at him, a cold, dangerous smile. "You would be wrong about that. As we speak, Rhaella is recovering from giving birth to her daughter on Dragonstone and Viserys is with her."

"My brother is will soon get rid of them then."

"No, he won't. One look at this scroll and Stannis stood down from his siege. As a matter of fact, he's currently using the fleet to make sure they stay safe. And there's also the matter of Rhaenys—"

"You know where my niece is?" Oberyn Martell demanded as he pushed through the crowd so he could see her.

She turned her head to look at him. "Of course I do. I got her out of King's Landing. I would've gotten Aegon out too, if Elia hadn't walked in when I was on the windowsill with him in my arms. And there's also Lyanna's son."

It was those words that got the king's attention. "Lyanna? What's happened to Lyanna? Why would she have a son?" he demanded, half rising from the throne.

Naruko didn't answer him. Instead, she turned around in a wide circle to look at everyone in the court. "Did any one of you wonder where I was during the rebellion? How I, who helped Barristan get Aerys out of Duskendale and who led the attack on the Kingswood Brotherhood, wasn't fighting by the royalists?" No one answered because they did not know the answer. "It's because I was hunting down Rhaegar and once that was done, I was in Dorne with Lyanna Stark, making sure that she and the baby she carried would be fine."

Shocked whispers began to echo throughout the court at those words. Jaime snuck a peek at the king, seeing how pale he was. "Baby…? Her baby?" he repeated. The paleness of surprise on his face was soon replaced with redness of anger. "He raped her! That bloody dragon bastard raped her!"

"Wrong," she said. "He didn't rape her. They were married." Jaime could see even more people begin to whisper amongst themselves.

"She married…him?" Robert repeated, sounding like he didn't understand the words he was hearing. His eyes wandered over to the only Stark in the room. "Tell me that she's lying, Ned."

"You will not hurt my nephew, Robert," he said in reply, his eyes hard and his glare icy.

"No, she's lying." He stood up from the Iron Throne and came down the steps with his hammer in his hands. "You're lying, whore," he told Naruko.

Ser Gerold, Arthur, and Oswell stepped forward with hands to their swords, but stopped when Naruko raised a hand. "You guys need to back up a little, you're crowding." They backed as ordered, so did her friend and Stark. "You know, when I was with Lyanna, we talked quite a bit. I told her that if she lived through the war and the dragons won, the odds were people would just see her as a whore.

"Do you know what she's said to me?" she asked the new king. "She said, 'I would rather be the dragon's whore then the stag's wife.'"

He roared in anger and charged at her, raising his hammer high. But then a bright light engulfed her and she looked like she had been cloaked by the gods. Bright yellow fire covered every single part of her but she did not look to be in pain. An arm manifested itself from the fire and grabbed hold of the new king, catching him in a crushing grip and then tossing him away like he was a doll.

There were shouts of surprise from his lords, some of them even rushed over to check on him. "He's dead!" the one closet to the corpse shouted for the whole throne room to hear. "The king has been killed!"

Jaime felt a slight gust of wind go past him. When he turned to look, he saw that Naruko was sitting on the Iron Throne, still bathed in the yellow fire. "Does anyone else want to challenge what Aerys had written down?" she asked aloud. Hightower, Dayne, and Whent all stepped forward in front of the throne, their hands on their swords. Stark stepped back and her friend simply placed his hands at his sides.

No one said word or made a move. Jaime could see that they were either awestruck or shocked by what they were seeing. Hearing her answer in the silence, the flames left Naruko and she was a normal human once more. "I thought not. Now I shall begin my first duties as Regent. Pycelle!" she snapped out.

The Grand Maester came out of the crowd in his slow walking way. "My lady?" he said, his head bowed and his tone servile.

"I had heard that when Tywin was at the gates, only you amongst Aerys' advisors advocated opening the gates to let him. Even Varys told the king to keep his former Hand out of the city. But he listened to you and opened the gates."

"I confess, I had thought that Lord Tywin had come to protect the king. But I was wrong."

"Were you?" she asked. "I have seen you interact with Tywin, Pycelle, and I know that you were a Lannister of Lannisport before becoming a maester. You had hoped to have Tywin crowned king since you had heard Rhaegar was killed and you figured the Targaryens were over. You betrayed the king who placed his trust in you and the throne that you swore your loyalty to."

"No, my lady!" protested Pycelle. "I would never do such a thing! I swear!" But even as he spoke, Jaime could tell that he was lying by how he began to sweat atop his head.

Naruko seemed to have seen that as well. "Oushi," she said and Jaime's Lord Commander turned to look at her. "Strangle him with his own chain." The White Bull nodded and immediately went for Pycelle. The Grand Maester tried to get away but was too slow. Soon, he began choking from the pressure of his chain against his neck as Ser Gerold pulled it back tight.

Everyone watched in horrified silence as Pycelle was killed in front of them. They had never thought to see something like that and neither had Jaime. When the Grand Maester finally died and his body was taken away, Gregor Clegane was brought forward by Oswell and Arthur. The Mountain looked like he wanted to break free but the grips holding him were too tight.

"Gregor Clegane," Naruko said. "You murdered Rhaegar's eldest son, Prince Aegon Targaryen, a baby who wasn't even a year old, then raped and killed his mother while his blood was still on your hands. Those are crimes that you will answer for."

"I demand a trial by combat," the Mountain said to her. He was most likely thinking that he would be able to easily defeat any opponent and get away with the murders.

"You'll get no such a thing," she replied, shocking the people in the throne room. Jaime could understand their feelings. Denying a person a trial by combat was simply unheard of! "There is no need to find if you're guilty or not when it is overwhelmingly clear."

"My Lady Naruko," Prince Oberyn said as he came even closer to the throne. "I beg for the opportunity to avenge my sister and my murdered nephew. Let me send this monster to the seven hells."

"No," she said.

Her word carried over the air in the room and Jaime could see that the Dornish were angry, none more so the Red Viper. "You would deny me the vengeance that is rightfully mine?" he demanded.

"As much as I am sure that you feel much anger and hatred to Gregor here, his death is not yours to claim. That belongs to someone else."

"No one has the right more than me!"

"You're wrong. His brother does." She turned her head to look at the Mountain. "I've met your brother, Clegane. He's a person who hates your entire being. When I asked him how he would kill you, he said, "I'd set his face on fire.' Since he's not here, I can't have him kill you. But I can give him what he wants." She looked over at her friend. "Sasuke, if you would."

Her friend walked forward so that he was standing in front of the Mountain, looking up at his face. Jaime couldn't see his face and he only heard a mumbled word before the man turned and walked away. But in that moment, a black fire suddenly appeared on Gregor Clegane's face. Both Oswell and Arthur released their grip on him and stepped back.

The Mountain screamed in pain as he tried to beat the fire off but that only made it cover his hands as well. No one tried to help him put out the flames, they were all too busy being shocked and horrified by the sight. His screaming echoed through the hall as he crashed to the ground and began thrashing around in his death throes. Thankfully, he soon died and the black fire mysteriously disappeared.

The body was removed quickly as Ser Barristan was ordered to come before the Iron Throne. The silence that followed was brief but very palpable as he stood before the throne. "Why did you take his pardon, Barristan?" she finally asked him.

"He offered it to me soon after being crowned king," he answered. "I was a knight of the Kingsguard and I had thought that I had no king to serve."

Apparently, she was relieved by his answer. "You're someone I like to consider a friend, Barristan, and you are still a member of the Kingsguard. But you will not be staying here in King's Landing. When Oberyn and his group leave for Dorne, you will be going with them." She saw the confusion on his face and smiled. "Rhaenys will need a Kingsguard close to her and I remember her following you around quite often."

Jaime saw relief on his face as he bowed his head. "Thank you, Lady Naruko."

He backed away and Jaime heard two words that he had hoped would never be said in court like this. "Jaime Lannister," Naruko called out. He stepped forward and then turned to face her on the Iron Throne. The last time she had looked at him like that, it was during the campaign against the Kingswood Brotherhood.

She had described him as, "Idiotic, reckless, hot-tempered, looking for a fight, and always going for the biggest opponent there," to Ser Arthur and the others after the battle with the Smiling Knight. But then she had said, "Kami, did Kakashi-sensei and the others have to put with that with me?" He had felt that it was a backhand complement, like she was saying that he was young and still had room to grow.

But now, what feelings she had about that with him were not there. "Jaime, you've killed your king. Why?" she asked him.

"May I speak freely?" he asked in return, to which she nodded. "You are partly to blame for my actions, my lady. While you were away, the king was slipping further into madness. He would have discussions with Rossart of the Alchemists' Guild, only to not remember them as soon as the man left the room. But he had realized this and ordered me one night to kill him if he should ever fall into madness beyond saving. I had protested but he reminded me that he was my king. And then came the day my father sacked King's Landing. The king had ordered Rossart to 'burn them all' and had ordered me to bring my father's head to him. I had no other choice, my orders had been given. So I buried my sword into the king's heart and then went after Rossart, killing him too." He held his head high as he spoke, not ashamed of what he had done.

The silence that followed felt deafening to him and he wanted someone, anyone, to break it. Finally, she was the one who did. "I've heard what had happened and I've heard many different proposals on what to do with you. Some have suggested that you've be expelled from the Kingsguard, some have taken it a step further and have said that you should join the Night's Watch, and some have said that you should be executed. But with what we have all heard right now, there is a more appropriate response."

He dared to ask. "What would that be?"

"You shall stay with the Kingsguard and when Lord Stark leaves for the North with his nephew, you will be joining him. But you will do it without a sword and you will not be permitted to use a sword until Prince Jon learns to fight. You were supposed to be a shield for the king. Perhaps you will be a better one for his grandson."

All he could do was nod in acknowledgement and step away. On the one hand, she was saving his life and on the other, she was stripping him of one of his most cherished skills. He was one of the best swordsmen in Westeros and she was making him wear no sword at all. Worse still, he was being sent away from Cersei. A small part of him wondered if she knew what she was doing by sending him to the North.

As his father was called to the throne, he kept silent. Tywin Lannister kept his head high as he looked at the woman sitting over him. "You've done something completely stupid, Tywin, and you're going to pay for it," she told him. "You've betrayed your king, your friend, and for what?"

"For my family," he answered.

"And for the chance to get Jaime out of that white cloak, right?" she added. Jaime's eyes widened at those words. He had never considered that to be a motive for his father to sack King's Landing. "Well, guess what? That cloak is staying on and Tyrion is your heir. No complaints, no excuses. You will also take the gold of your house and funnel it into reconstructing the city. I will expect you to be working alongside the actual builders and will be treated as such. Once the city is repaired, you will leave King's Landing and only return when I order it. I will also expect your daughter to leave the city by the end of the day."

Jaime could see that his father was angry about the orders he had been given. But he did not shout or yell at Naruko. Instead, he simply bowed his head and turned to leave the hall. "And who are you, the proud lord said, that I must bow so low?" Naruko said aloud, making all in the hall look at her. "That's what's going through your head right now, Tywin," she spoke to his father, who had stopped in mid-stride. "To answer your question, I am a fox who has faced things far worse than you."

Again, his father didn't say anything. He just turned and kept walking. When he left, so did the rest of the Lannisters there. "What is wrong with you?!" Oberyn Martell suddenly burst out, glaring openly at the woman on the throne. "That man has betrayed the king, sacked this city, killed my sister and her daughter, and you've let him off with a slap on the wrist!"

"Oh, I've done more than that, Oberyn," she said in reply. "You're just not paying attention."

"What?" he snarled at her.

"We have a saying where I'm from: 'when you want to harm a man without touching him, harm the things he cares for.' I've made him accept that his least favorite child is his heir while taking the preferred one away from him and making him force his daughter away from this city now that she doesn't have the chance to be queen. I've cost him his attack dog. I've turned his supposed victory of King's Landing into a humiliating defeat and have forced him into helping rebuild the very city he had sacked. In short, I have shamed the lion."

" _She most certainly has,"_ Jaime thought to himself as she went through the rest of the court. The only thing he feared for was his father, who would not take this lying down.

 **Stannis**

(Location: Red Keep)

When he and Renly had been summoned to King's Landing to bend the knee to the regent, there had been lords of the Stormlands who argued that they should keep their banners raised, in honor of Robert. But Robert was dead, Rhaegar Targaryen was dead, King Aerys was dead. It was time to end it. So he brought himself and his little brother to King's Landing, knowing that they would be punished for supporting their eldest brother.

But instead of that, the Lady Naruko had congratulated Stannis for holding Storm's End for such a long time (and also rebuking Mace Tyrell for trying to say that it was his army that kept them there, reminding him that he had just sat on his ass). "You're a stag with a hide of iron, Stannis," she said to him with a smile on her face.

Having despite rebelling against the king, she did not punish him or Renly any further. She had told him that Renly would be fostered out and that he was invited to sit on the Small Council. Surprised by such an offer, he had chosen to be the Master of Ships, with Ser Davos by his side.

"How are things coming with the reconstruction?" she had asked the Small Council as they sat in the hall. Stannis did not know most of the members there and the only one who he knew did not belong there was the Spider. Why Lady Naruko hadn't sent the eunuch away baffled him.

"The city is coming along well," Lord Jon Arryn, the Master of Laws told her. "Lord Tywin has informed me that the repairs should be done within two months."

"Excellent," the Tyrell maester who sat amongst them said. "That will be just in time for ravens to be sent out baring news about the victory tourney. I'm—"

"There will be no victory tourney," Lady Naruko cut him off shortly.

"My, my lady?" he asked.

"You heard me. Whatever plans you have for a tourney, cancel them. Westeros is still recovering from the war; we can't afford to waste any more money."

"But, Lady Naruko, young knights all across the Seven Kingdoms live for such things. It is a chance to prove their valor and their chivalry in the eyes of men and the gods."

"And they didn't do enough of that during the war?" she asked him with a pointed tone in her voice, making him close his mouth. "If the individual kingdoms wish to do such things, they can. But there will be no royal tourney until I say so." She looked at the rest of the Small Council. "Is there anything else?"

"My little birds have been passing some concerns the smallfolk have been speaking of," Varys said with his simpering tone. "They speak about how you have not brought the Kingsguard back to their former strength."

"That's because I'm not the king, or even the queen," she said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm just the regent. The Kingsguard will be taken care of by the Kingsguard and the next ruler."

Stannis, and everyone else there, took notice of how she said those words. She did not say king, which meant when the time came, she could easily choose Princess Rhaenys or Princess Daenerys over Prince Viserys or Prince Jon. _"Hopefully, she will not be so foolhardy,"_ Stannis thought to himself. The Seven Kingdoms had a female ruler once and they bled because of it.

"They also talk about how you have not selected a Hand to help you in matters of state."

She smiled at those words. "Ah, that's where you're wrong, Varys. I have selected someone to help. I am just waiting for him to get here."

"Who is this person?" Stannis asked her.

"Just someone I knew from my homeland, Stannis," she answered, turning her attention to him. "When he and his wife get here, I want you to foster Renly with them." He gritted his teeth slightly but nodded in acknowledgement. She had told him to do it and he would obey.

The door to the hall opened and Ser Arthur Dayne looked inside. "Your pardon, my lords," he said. "But there is a man out here who is looking for the 'troublesome blonde.' Should I send him on his way?"

Naruko smiled and stood up from her chair. "Send him in, Hoshi," she ordered. Ser Arthur pulled his head back out and opened the door further, allowing a man with black, spiked hair and an expression that made him look like he did not want to be there walk in. "Gentlemen, this is Shikamaru Nara," she introduced the man to the Small Council. "The laziest guy I have ever known."

"And you're still the most troublesome woman I've had the misfortune to know," the man replied.

" _This? This is the man I am to give Renly to?"_ Stannis thought to himself. It felt like the beginnings of a mistake.

"Where's Temari?" Naruko asked the man as she walked around the table to stand beside him.

"She and Shikadai are waiting in an inn outside the city. We figured that it was best that I come first to see what was going to happen."

A smile grew on her face. "You're a father? I never would've thought you'd marry her, much less be a dad, Shikamaru."

"Time does strange things," he replied as he looked at her. "Speaking of which, who's the father?"

That one question drew confused looks from the Small Council. Naruko's smile faltered but did not disappear. "The king that had died," she answered. "He was my friend."

"You…you had slept with the king?" Stannis said with a tightened voice as the rest of the Small Council had looked on in shock.

But the foreign man just kept looking at her. "He found you the day of Jiraiya's death and comforted you, didn't he?" he finally asked.

Her smile never faded. "Nice to see you haven't lost your skill."

"How can he know that?" the Tyrell demanded.

The man just looked at him with a bored expression. "I saw how far along she was and mentally went back through the months to see when it was most likely to occur and what dates were significant to Naruko."

"Your grasp of our language is astounding," the Spider remarked. "I hear no accent in your voice."

"I learned how to speak it on the way here from Naruko's letter. She had written in both your alphabet and ours."

"You mean to say that you learned how to speak the Common Tongue just from a single letter?" Stannis demanded.

Lady Naruko had a grin on her face that seemed rather mischievous. "I should also probably mention that Shikamaru's the _smartest_ person I have ever known. I think he'll do just fine as the Hand, don't you?" she asked them all. No one said anything, but now Stannis felt more wary about the man who stood beside her and what might happen to Renly.

 **Olenna**

(Location: Red Keep)

While her son had complained about the woman, about how rude and undignified she was, Olenna saw something of herself in the Regent of the Seven Kingdoms. She was tough and knew how to run a kingdom, and therein laid the problem. It seemed that neither she nor her friend would succumb to outside influences in court.

While she had no doubt that other noble houses were doing the same, Olenna and the Tyrell family had tried to charm her with no success. Every young maiden in the Reach of age had been sent to King's Landing to be a lady-in-waiting to the regent, only to be sent back soon after, each claiming that she said "If you don't have something worthwhile to do here, go back home." Every young man that had been sent to be a suitor to her (she was able to marry again) had been ignored. If it weren't for the reports that she spent time with her Hand and his family, Olenna would've thought that she was a woman focused solely on the work she undertook.

But now, things were going to change. Highgarden had received a raven from King's Landing, instructing the head of House Tyrell to come to court. And while her puff fish of a son might bluster, they both knew who the actual head of the family was. But still, appearances had to be maintained.

And despite the letter not saying anything much, she could guess the intent. By the time they were most likely to arrive, the regent would've given birth to her bastard child. If it was a son, it was most likely that they had been summoned so that she can show him off and bully them into accepting him as their future king.

That might be her plan but it could be turned around. If the Tyrells were to take control of the babe that would certainly force her to bend enough to their will. Of course, that didn't mean that they would be alone in this idea. If the other Lords Paramount were summoned, no doubt some of them had the same idea. It all came down to who acted first.

" _And whether my fool of a son believes it or not, the Tyrells always acted first,"_ Olenna thought to herself as she, her son, and the rest of the Lord Paramount were waiting outside the birthing chamber. They were all silent and sizing the others up, even that honorable fool Ned Stark.

They had been waiting all through the night, since the girl had decided to go into labor the day before. She had sent orders to the men she hired to be ready and she was sure that the others had done the same. Now all they had to do was wait to see the babe.

Finally, the door opened and the Hand showed him. "You can come in now," he told them all.

They all marched into the room to see the girl lying in the bed with a lot of pillows propping her up and her hair resting on her shoulders. It had been some years since Olenna had last seen the girl in Highgarden, where she was stealing flowers alongside the previous king and the Imp of all people. "Thanks for coming, guys," she started, only to frown. "Wait, where are Doran and Balon?"

"My apologies, my lady," Oberyn Martell said without an ounce of apology in his voice. "My brother was unable to come to King's Landing so he sent me in his stead."

"And really, girl, did you expect Balon Greyjoy to leave that heap of rocks he calls home?" Olenna asked her.

"I do when it concerns the Iron Islands."

"Eh? What was that? Speak up girl!"

"Shut up, you old hag. You and I both know that you can hear just fine." She ignored Olenna's slightly outraged look and turned to the Dornishman in the room. "And the next time I want Doran to come to King's Landing, he's comes to King's Landing. No excuses."

"My lady, why exactly have you summoned us to the capital?" Stark asked her.

" _Do try and keep up,"_ the Queen of Thorns thought to herself. It was almost painfully obvious why she had called them all here. Now it was just a matter of time before she revealed the babe.

"I called you all here because I am establishing a new tradition in the Seven Kingdoms," the regent told them all. "At the start of the new year, each of the Lords Paramount will come to King's Landing and report on how their lands are faring. And since you were the one who asked, we'll start with you, Eddard."

Those words had thrown the nobles there for a loop. They had all thought she was going to do one thing and then she did another? That didn't make sense. "I believe you have forgotten something, my lady," Oberyn remarked before Ned Stark could begin.

She looked at him and then at her Hand. "Did I miss something, Shikamaru?" she asked him.

"No, you didn't."

"Oh, good," she said with a smile.

"Lady Naruko, clearly you have summoned us here so that you may present your child," Mace said, puffing up with his own importance. "So why don't you cease with this farce and just let us see the babe already?"

Slowly, the blonde woman turned her head to look at Olenna's son, her blue eyes as hard as ice. "When I sent that raven to Highgarden, I was expecting your mother to show up, considering the fact that she's the one who runs the Reach."

His eyes bulged slightly at the insult. "I am the head of House Tyrell and Warden of the South!" he all but shouted.

"And you can't even rule over a simple kitchen. So shut up and let the person who has the brains in your family talk."

Her eyes found Olenna and the Queen of Thorns did speak. "While I wouldn't have put it quite like my idiot son had, he does have a point. Where's your son, girl? I'm sure that you want to show him off and make us all swear to make him the new king."

"Why would I do that? So you can pass the information onto the men that you hired?"

"Whatever do you mean by that?"

"Do you think I am an idiot? I know damn well that there are several of you here who are waiting to see my son so you can tell the people you've hired to either kidnap or murder him."

"My lady, we would never do something like that!" Stark protested.

"I know you wouldn't, Ned, neither would Lord Arryn or Stannis. But…" She leveled an accusing finger at Olenna. "You were planning to kidnap him." She pointed the finger at Oberyn. "You were planning on kidnapping him." She pointed the finger at Tywin. "You were planning to kidnap him but your daughter had plans to kill him. And Lord Tully was undecided if he should try to kidnap my son or not."

No one said a word, so she continued. "I am well aware of what you had thought you would accomplish by taking my son away from me. Well, I'm delighted to disappoint you. I had never planned on making my son be the heir I chosen."

"Then where is he?" Stannis asked.

"In my homeland, where he'll be raised away from all of you and your little game," she answered.

"It seems like you're not a mother if you're going to be sending your child away from you," Olenna remarked.

The blonde woman's eyes found her. "You know what Aerys, Rhaella, and even Rhaegar had considered you, Olenna?" she asked. "They had considered you to be a source of laughter in the family. The woman who had been dumped by Aerys's uncle and was ashamed enough to lie to everyone, saying that she was the one who broke the betrothal by sleeping with Luthor. The truth is that you both slept together because you were embarrassed by how the royal family had treated you."

The Queen of Thorns went silent, shocked that she had found that embarrassing secret. She looked at the men there and saw how some were surprised and how some were trying not to laugh at her. The girl continued to speak, in spite of what she had just revealed. "I've sent my son away _because_ I love him. I love him so much I would keep him away from power-hungry nobles who would want to use him for their own gains. So I'm going to make this clear to all of you: if I find out that you or any families under your command have sent men to harm or take my son by force, I will find the ones responsible and I will _obliterate_ their entire family." She eyed everyone in the room (with the exception of her Hand). "Are we clear?"

 **Gerold**

(Location: Pyke)

When the Iron Islands rose up in rebellion, it had seemed like that every noble who disliked how Lady Naruko ruled rose too. There was at least one noble family in each kingdom of Westeros stirring up trouble while the ironborn raided the coasts of the Westerlands and the Reach.

But Naruko (who had been called the Fox Lady by some of the court for what she had told Tywin Lannister) did not panic at such a thing. She simply sent orders to the Lords Paramount to put the rebelling families down and traveled with a simple entourage to the Westerlands. From there, she sailed to the Iron Islands. The only order she gave was a simple one. "Capture any Greyjoy you find alive and bring them to me."

When they arrived at the Iron Island, they were met by a man who looked like he was from the Summer Isles with hair that had a color the Lord Commander thought belonged only to those of Valyrian blood. Lady Naruko greeted the man as a friend, punching his fist with her own (which was odd) and speaking to him in their own language.

And while the navies of the Reach and the Westerlands beat back the ironmen ships, she and her friend struck the islands. The White Bull was not sure how they were doing it, but they would disappear for hours on end, only to return with an island's surrender. Some of the men had noted the sounds of thunder in the distance when they were gone, even when there were no storm clouds overhead.

By the time the rest of the islands and its lords had surrendered, five Greyjoys had been brought to the regent: Balon's brothers and his two eldest sons. That was when the hammer fell. Both Lady Naruko and her friend walked up to the gates of Pyke. She conjured up a blue orb in the palm of her hand and thrust it at the gates, utterly smashing them apart. She and her friend charged in and the forces that she commanded followed in after her.

What came next was no battle for that would imply that the ironmen had a chance of emerging victorious. It was a route, plain and simple. Six years ago, he had seen Lady Naruko cloak herself in heavenly fire and used it to remove Robert Baratheon. He had thought that to be the extent of her abilities, but he had been wrong.

She was cloaked in her robe of holy flame and her friend seemed to wear one of demonic fire. Together, they smashed through what forces were in the castle like a hot knife going through butter. By the time they had reached the gates of the first keep, those forces had fallen back into the castle. But it did not stop there, not until they walked into the hall of the Great Keep and saw Balon Greyjoy sitting on the Seastone Chair with his wife and children nearby. Gerold quickly ordered the men under his command to surround the hall and keep their swords bared.

Lady Naruko simply walked to the floor before the dais where the Seastone Chair sat and looked at Balon Greyjoy. "You know, I met your father once," she told the man. "Obviously, he was the only one who had any sense of brains in your family."

The self-proclaimed King of the Iron Islands glared hard at him. "Watch your tongue, woman," he ordered her.

"I could kill you with ease and with a flick of my hand," she told him, returning his glare. "So if I were you, I would just surrender right now and I might just return something to you."

He sneered at her. "What would that be?"

The doors to the hall opened and the captured Greyjoys were forced in, walking up to Lady Naruko and then standing behind her. "Have you met my salt husbands?" she asked him with a tone that was curious, but also mocking.

Balon's eyes went wide with shock and then hardened into fury. "Father—" his eldest son began to speak, only to have the blonde woman's fist in his mouth. He fell to the floor, spitting out teeth and groaning in pain.

"Did I say that you could speak?" she asked him with a barely a look at him.

"That is my son!" Balon roared, standing up from his chair.

"And now he's my salt husband. Which means I can do just about anything I want to do to them, like this," she replied, pulling out a knife and plunging it into Euron Greyjoy's covered eye. He fell to the ground, screaming. "Oh do shut up," she told the man, kicking his head hard enough to snap his neck, killing him instantly. "Whoops."

While others might've been revolted or shock by how a woman could casually do something like this, the White Bull understood her game and with a quick look, saw that his fellow brothers did too. She was treating the ironmen like the ironmen treated their salt wives and thralls. She was giving them a taste of the other end of their own traditions.

"Now then," she said, kicking Balon's second son in the knees so that he would fall on all fours and then sitting down on his back. "Why don't we talk about your surrender?" She looked over at Victarion Greyjoy. "Hey, my shoulders are killing me. Rub them, would ya?" When it looked like he would object, she pulled out one of her knives and began fiddling with it. The message was clear and he did as he was told. "And you," she said, looking at Aeron Greyjoy. "Rub my feet." He did as he was bidden, taking off her boots and rubbing the feet there.

Gerold was sure that Balon was in a furious rage at the sight. His brothers and sons, one dead and the rest being treated like salt wives. "I will not bend the knee to the likes of you, woman," he sneered at the blonde.

"Yes, you will," she replied. "Your fleet has been destroyed, the rest of the islands have surrendered. You are alone, Balon Greyjoy. So you will surrender and I will give you incentive to do so." She looked over at her friend and said, "Bee."

Her friend nodded once, his face grim. He strode into the crowd surrounding the edges of the hall, heading for the youngest children of Balon, a girl and a boy. He took hold of them and walked out of the hall, despite their struggling and their screaming. "What are you doing!?" Balon demanded, standing up from the Seastone Chair.

"I'm taking your children and sending them back to my homeland," Lady Naruko said to him, still sitting on his second eldest son's back. "It's part of the whole fostering thing."

"I have not bent the knee!"

"But you will. And do you know why?" She leaned forward, her face hard and unreadable. "Because if you don't, I'm going to give you a choice," she told him. "And that choice is which will you want destroyed: the Iron Islands, or your house?" Those words seemed to silence everyone in the hall, even him. "You've heard what my friend and I could do when we breached your gates. You probably think that your men were exaggerating. Let me assure you, they were not. In fact, we were holding back. If we wanted to, we could've very well wiped the Iron Islands off the face of the map.

"So do you want to be remembered as the last head of House Greyjoy, or as the man who let the Iron Islands be destroyed because he was too proud to bend the knee in surrender?"

For a long moment, no one did anything. Then Balon stood up from the Seastone Chair, walked down to her, took his crown off his head, threw aside, and bent the knee. "I yield to you," he said to her, his head bowed and his voice defeated.

 **Tywin**

(Location: Casterly Rock)

The regent was a woman that infuriated him at times. She had crushed the rebellion of the Greyjoys but did not eliminate them. She might've killed the Crow's Eye, hung the eldest son of Balon Greyjoy, and gelded the second son before sending him to join the Night's Watch, but that was it. He had heard of the youngest Greyjoys being sent to her homeland to be fostered, but he wasn't going to put stock in that until he had proof.

That woman had turned what should've been a victory for him and the rebels into a humiliation, even more so when she used the words of his infamous song against him. He was quite sure that if his reputation wasn't what it was, his lords would be laughing at him like they had his father.

But there was more to his infuriation than that. It all came back to the time Aerys had come to Casterly Rock and Tywin had held a tournament in honor of his newborn son, all in the hope of marrying Cersei to Rhaegar. The woman had come into the feasting hall with his dwarf son on her shoulders, when he had ordered Tyrion to stay out of sight.

It had been long enough since the argument that followed was spoken, but there were days when he looked at her, he could feel the hard slap she gave him across his face in front of the entire hall and the words she all but snarled at him.

" _You are his father. He is your son. That is reason enough."_

It was his belief that was what made Aerys refuse to marry Rhaegar to Cersei. Later, she would force him to acknowledge Tyrion as his heir and then take him away from the Westerlands to keep an eye on him while having the gall (the gall!) to keep Jaime in the Kingsguard and send him North to protect the Stark bastard.

But he was willing (grudgingly) to give credit where credit was due. He had to admit that hosting no tournaments in the early days of her rule was a well thought move on her part. She ruled well, but that was a problem. She ruled so well that she would not bend her ear to listen to one side of a story. Any suitors sent to her would be ignored and noble ladies sent to serve her would be sent back almost as soon as they reached the gate. It seemed that every noble family south of the Neck had done this, so he was not alone in his irritation.

It had been about a week since the end of the rebellion of the Iron Islands. Tywin had tried to put together a tournament to honor the victory, but the woman put an end to that quickly. "It would imply that it was memorable enough to remember," she told him. "And it wasn't."

Her and her party was staying in Casterly Rock for a while until they headed back to King's Landing. And today, something odd was happening with the regent. She had gone to the sept in a formal robe of her homeland. It was black and the expression on her face was solemn. Ever since he had first known her, Tywin had never known her to go to a sept to pray. So he sent his youngest brother, Gerion, to see what she was doing.

He, his brothers Kevan and Tygett, as well as his sister Genna, waited in his solar for Gerion to come back. It didn't take him long to come back. "Who is she meeting in the sept?" Tywin asked his brother as he entered the solar, sitting in his chair at his table.

"It's nice to see you too, brother," Gerion remarked lightly. "My morning is going fine, thank you for asking."

"Gerion, answer his question," Kevan told him, standing by his eldest brother's right.

"She's not meeting with anyone. In fact, I think she's praying."

"That woman has never gone over to the Faith of the Seven," Tygett remarked from where he stood near the fire. "Why would she go now?"

"Perhaps she goes to the Mother and prays for her child," Genna suggested on the other side of his desk.

"A woman who gives up her son in order to rule a kingdom?" asked Tywin of his sister. "I do not think she would pray to the Mother, more likely one of the other gods. Perhaps she prays the Crone to show her wisdom."

"Why would you say that?"

"She had brought the Iron Islands to heel and did nothing to correct them. Instead, she gave Balon back his brothers and told them how to find her homeland. I would say that she isn't as smart as she thinks she is if the ironmen will stop reaving after one rebellion."

"As interesting as this conversation, I am proud to say that I have the distinct honor of saying that both my elder sister and eldest brother are wrong," Gerion said, getting their attention. "It is rare that it happens, but it happens all the same."

"Speak plainly, Gerion," Tywin ordered his brother, glaring hard at him.

"She wasn't praying at the statue of the Mother or the Crone. She was actually praying at the statue of the Stranger. The one in our sept is made of black onyx; I hadn't realized that until just now."

"Gerion," the Lord of Casterly Rock said again, knowing full well that he had always know what kind of stone the Stranger in the sept was made of.

"Alright, alright, she lit four candles at the Stranger's alter. Maybe she wants four people dead."

"Who would she want dead? She had just quashed a rebellion," Kevan wondered.

"I don't know about three of them, but I can name one right away." The youngest Lannister looked pointedly at the eldest after saying those words.

Tywin pushed back from the desk and stood slowly up. "Were your name not Lannister and were you not my brother, I would have you killed for making such a remark," he told Gerion in a quiet but hard tone, while also giving him a look that would've made many of his lords shake in their boots.

But Gerion wasn't affected by it. "It's the truth, Tywin, and we all know it."

He stared at his brother for a long moment. "Then we must prepare ourselves if she plans to have me killed."

"She doesn't want you dead, your brother was mistaken," the voice of the regent's Hand said when he appeared in the doorway to the solar.

They had not seen him appear and were a little surprised by the sight of him. "What are you doing here?" Tygett demanded.

"Naruko sent me to clear up any misunderstanding that you may have had," he replied, coming into the room. "By the way, you're Tygett, right?"

"Yes," Tywin's brother said with narrowed eyes.

"Naruko wanted to know if you were interested in coming to King's Landing to serve as Master-at-arms. The guy who's serving in that position is getting old and wants to retire."

Tywin frowned hard at the man standing in his solar's doorway. He had tried to get that position for his brother before, only to be denied by Aerys. Now Tygett was being offered that position again, without his help this time. One look at his brother and he knew that Tygett knew it as well. "I accept," he declared.

"Great, I'll let her know tomorrow. It's a drag but when we leave, you come with us."

"My Lord Shikamaru," Genna said, getting the Hand's attention. "How have we been wrong in understanding the regent?"

He looked at her as he walked into the solar, leaving the door open. "She's in mourning," he began. "Normally, when someone's birthday, or name day as you guys call it, they celebrate it. But instead, Naruko mourns."

"Today is Lady Naruko's name day?" Kevan repeated, getting a nod from the man. "Brother, we should prepare a feast," he said to Tywin.

"Are you being a drag on purpose, or are you going deaf?" the Hand asked him whist rolling his eyes. "I just told you that she's mourning and you want to throw a party?"

Every Lannister in the room was insulted by the remark, except for Gerion. "Why is she mourning on her name day?" he asked.

"Because on the day she was born, our home was attacked and her parents died as a result," he answered. "Since then, she's lost two more people: a man who taught her and a friend who threw himself in harm's way to protect her. She prays to your Stranger because she knows that the god of death holds those who she has lost in its grasp. She grew up with no family, so she's desperate to treat her friends as her family and hates it when she loses one of them."

He looked over them all with a hard expression. "I must confess that I have good reason to hate you Westerosi people. Before I saw her again, the Naruko I knew would smile and welcome anyone with open arms and treat them like a friend, even those who fought against her. But now, she's been hardened into something I don't recognize."

"Obviously, she hasn't been hardened enough," Tywin said. "If she was truly hardened, she would've utterly crushed House Greyjoy and replaced it with a house that would've been more inclined to follow. Instead, she gave Balon Greyjoy back his brothers and showed him the way to her home."

"That's because she shoved a trade agreement down his throat while also making him bring back the laws that his father had instated, all but forcing him to agree to it. She sent his youngest children to the Land of Water and the Land of Lightning to be trained as shinobi. She knew that if she gave the passageway to the ironmen, they would try their precious 'Old Way' on the Elemental Nations, especially if Balon is keen on getting his kids back. That's way she sent a message back home, warning the rulers about them. If the ironmen try to plunder, the shinobi will retaliate, in full force."

"Huh, that's rather ingenious of her," Gerion said.

"It's a drag is what it is. But she's the regent and she letting you and the rest of the nobles in Westeros that you only get one warning, that's it. After that, she's going to extend the same offer she gave Balon: which would you rather have destroyed, your land or your house?" He turned around and walked back to the door, stopping as he took hold of it and looked back at them. "And by the way, House Lannister has already had its warning."

"What? When did this happen?" Kevan demanded.

"When your brother decided to sack King's Landing." He walked out and closed the door behind him. Tywin stared at the door to his solar. The implication was clear: the regent would have no problem destroying him if he stepped out of line. Well, then it was best to make sure that she never saw him step.

 **Arianne**

(Location: Sunspear)

She was eating lunch with her cousins when the snake had appeared on the floor. No one had noticed it at first. But when Rhaenys's cat leapt up onto the table and began hissing at the floor, they turned to see what he was hissing at and saw the snake.

"Careful," Obara said to the rest of them, being the eldest of them. "No one make any sudden moves."

"Is it poisonous?" Tyene asked her, sounding more interest than scared as she watched the pure white snake slither across the floor towards them.

"I'm not sure. I've never seen a snake like that before. Nymeria, get that bag on the table, the one off to the side," she instructed her younger sister and second eldest of the Sand Snakes.

The cat was still hissing at the snake, readying itself to attack the thing. That is, until Rhaenys placed a hand on him. "Shush, Balerion," she told him while stroking his fur. "Let them handle it."

"Please don't kill it, Obara," Tyene said to her sister.

"Sister, just because we're called Sand Snakes, doesn't mean we need to collect them," Sarella, the youngest of the Sand Snakes, piped up as she watched the snake fearfully. It was currently weaving its way beneath the bench they were all sitting on and she looked rather afraid.

"Don't worry, Sarella," Arianne told her. "I won't let that snake hurt you." She kept her eyes on that snake as it slithered passed her feet. Once it came out from under the bench, Obara and Nym would able to capture it.

A dry laugh echoed through the hall before the snake could be caught, surprising the girls. The snake seemed to have heard it too as it began moving more quickly across the floor, towards one of the doors leading into the hall. They all turned to see where it was going and watched as it was picked up by a pale-looking man with black hair. "It seems that only some of the Sand Snakes I have heard so much about live up to their name," he said, his voice a dry hiss.

"Who are you?" Arianne demanded, standing up from her seat along with the rest of her family.

"The better question is who are you?" he asked. They could see the amusement in his golden eyes.

"You do not come into my father's hall and demand to know who we are without giving your identity, ser. You will give it, now!" she demanded loudly and angrily. Obara, Nym, and Tyene began to move closer to the man, ready to attack at a moment's notice.

But he only chuckled some more. "I see you have your grandmother's feistiness," he told Arianne, surprising her. How did he know her grandmother? "As for me, I am simply looking for your father." He turned around and went back into through the door.

"Get back here!" she shouted after him but he did not stop. "Where is Ser Barristan?" she asked Rhaenys. The Kingsguard was almost never out of eyesight of her little cousin but today seemed to prove otherwise.

"No time to worry about that," Obara declared. "We must go after him!"

They ran after the man on angry feet. They found him quickly enough, standing before the door that Arianne knew led into her father's solar. "Stop!" she cried out. But the man only opened the door and walked in.

But his mistake was that he left the door open and so they ran right in. And that was how they came upon their fathers talking with the Fox Lady and her Hand. The first thing they saw was the look on Lady Naruko's face. She had come to Dorne many times and had played with Arianne and her cousins. They had seen her with a happy face, a mischievous face, a semi-serious face, and a comforting face. But the face she had on was none of those things. It was hard and angry and her eyes never left the stranger.

"What are you doing here?" she asked with a growl in her voice. She had been sitting down when they had all come in but now she was standing and so was her Hand.

The man laughed his dry laugh. "A man can't visit his family?" he asked.

"A man, yes," she replied. "You? I doubt it."

"Doubt all you want, Naruko. But I am here on a simple visit. You might even consider me retired."

She scoffed at those words. "Shinobi like you never retire."

Arianne didn't know what they were talking about and that made her very worried. But overcame her worry was when her father stood up carefully and said, "Father, why didn't you send a message. There are no rooms prepared for you. This is a complete surprise."

"Father?" repeated Rhaenys as she looked at her uncle and the man. The adults looked at them all like they were realizing that children were there.

"Father, who is this man?" demanded Obara of Uncle Oberyn, pointing at the strange.

But for some reason, that just made Uncle Oberyn laugh. "Would you like to explain this one, brother?" he said to Doran.

Arianne's father sighed once and looked at the children. "Girls, this is your grandfather, Orochimaru of the Elemental Nations," he told them.

While she and her cousins were surprised by the news (they had never met their grandfather), the man kept his eyes on Naruko. "I see you're not surprised by this," he remarked.

"I had my suspicions the first time I met Oberyn. He has your eyes," she replied, her voice still cool. "Did you also happen to tell them the rest of your history or did you leave the nasty pieces alone?"

"Now, now, Naruko, that's hardly fair. You were forced to leave to as I recall."

Her gaze hardened. "I was forced to leave because that idiot of a daimyo wanted someone to blame for the war. You left for an entirely different reason."

"And yet, you've let Tsunade come to you when you needed help. I heard she had healed the Tyrell boy so he was good as new and took him on as a student of sort."

Arianne noticed that her uncle winced slightly at those words. They had all heard about what had happened during the tourney in Highgarden, how her uncle bested Willas Tyrell, only for the boy to get his foot caught and bring the horse down with him. It was thought he would never walk again but apparently, that was wrong.

"I trust Tsunade," the Fox Lady said. "I don't trust you."

Arianne, too transfixed by the conversation, failed to see that Rhaenys had gone up to the man. "Are you really our grandfather?" she asked him with a voice that made everyone fall silent.

He looked down at her and a smile crossed his lips slightly. "I am. And you are Rhaenys Targaryen, eldest child of Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell."

She smiled brightly. "Grandfather!" she cried happily before throwing herself against his side, hugging him tightly.

He looked surprised at the fact that she was hugging him. It was like no one had ever really hugged him before. "How do we know that he is our grandfather?" Obara asked, ruining the moment.

Her father gave her a look. "Do you doubt the word of your uncle, Obara?" he asked. "He is your grandfather and the one who gave me the name of Red Viper."

"I had always thought it fitting," Orochimaru remarked.

"Why?" Tyene asked with curiosity in her voice.

It was Lady Naruko who answered. "In the Elemental Nations, he was part of a team called the Densetsu no Sannin. He in particular was called the Snake Sannin." She narrowed her eyes at him, making her face seem even harder. "How long have you've been coming to Westeros?"

"For some time," he answered evasively. "I decided to cut the amount of traveling here after learning about how much trouble Jiraiya got the Seven Kingdoms in just by traveling around with a man named Dunk and a boy named Egg."

"I know those names!" Rhaenys said brightly. "You're talking about Ser Duncan the Tall and my ancestor, King Aegon V!" She frowned though. "But who is the third man? I don't know him."

He chuckled again. "I do, little dragon. He was my former teammate and he was known as the Toad Sannin."

"Former?" Arianne asked with a suspicious voice. "What happened?"

"He died." He looked over at the Fox Lady before speaking again. "Speaking of my dead teammate, I had happened to meet your son while I was in Konoha, Naruko."

The warm air in the room, the heat that was natural to Dorne, seemed to evaporate and was replaced with a frigid air that sent shivers up Arianne's spine. It also didn't help that the look on the Fox Lady's face was one that made her want to run away and hide. "If you so much as touch a hair on his head," she began.

But instead of shivering or looking scared, Arianne's grandfather just laughed. "You don't need to worry, Naruko. Sasuke has already made that perfectly clear to me. And as I said before, I am retired. Can I not simply enjoy a time with my family?"

Slowly, the warmth of Dornish air came back into the room but the expression on the Fox Lady did not soften. "Fine, but that's it."

 **Margaery**

(Location: Red Keep)

She had been walking in one of the many gardens along with her brothers, Princesses Rhaenys and Daenerys, and the Queen Dowager Rhaella when the sounds of swords clashing began to fill the air. Curious, they all followed the sound until they came upon two men sparring with strange swords that had a curve to their blades. Margaery knew that the taller of the two men was Sandor Clegane, as evident by the sigil he wore. The story was that he had been burned by his brother as a child but she could see no burns on his face.

But it was the man he was sparring against that had her attention. The first thing that got her attention was his hair. It was red, but not the kind of red that the Tullys have. No, this was a deeper red, like the color of a ruby shining in the light, held back by a piece of cloth with a metal plate attached. What got her attention next were his eyes, a shining violet. His clothing was strange and foreign, but she could tell that he was by no means weak and that he was used to handling his weapon.

A strangled gasp came from Queen Rhaella, making others look at her. In her eyes was a look of shocked surprise. Margaery did not know what to make of her reaction, deciding to wait and see what unfolded. Her brother Loras had some things to say, though. "They spar without any protection and with live steel?" he said aloud. "That is a stupid way to train."

"It's not stupid, it's just different, Loras," Willas told him. Her eldest brother had been gone from Highgarden since he had been healed and had only returned a few months earlier, much different then what he used to be. He could fight, but preferred to heal and care. Loras said nothing in reply, choosing to watch the fight instead.

The fight soon ended with no clear winner. The red-headed man stepped back from Clegane and sheathed his sword. "Thanks for the spar, Clegane," he said with an accent and a smile. "Mom was right when she told me to seek you out for a round. Lord Mifune trained you good."

"You still need to be better," Clegane said shortly, sheathing his sword as well. "I could have beaten you one too many times."

"I'll take that under consideration."

The older man snorted and then noticed that they had company. "You, you're that Tyrell boy," he called out to Willas.

"I am," Willas said, stepping forward to greet him. "I see you have healed well."

"Aye, I have. Tell that teacher of yours I said thanks."

"If I see her again, I will pass it on." The man just grunted and walked away.

"So you're the somewhat student the old hag had taken on here, huh?" the red-headed man said, coming up to him as well. "Nice to meet ya, I'm Jiraiya Uzumaki." He held his hand while the other held his sword.

"A pleasure," Willas said, shaking the hand. "I don't mean to be rude, but are you by any chance related to Lady Naruko?"

"Yep, she's my mom."

Now Margaery knew why the queen had gasped like that. Standing before them was the child of the Mad King and the Fox Lady. She remembered how Grandmother told them about she and Father were summoned to King's Landing, think that they were going to meet this child, only to find that he had been sent away.

"Allow me to introduce my brother, Loras, and my sister, Margaery," Willas said to him, extending a hand towards. "And this is—"

"I think I know who they are," Jiraiya said, walking up to the royal family. "You're my niece, Rhaenys, you're my big sister, Daenerys, and you're Queen Rhaella, my other mom," he said to each one of them, still smiling. Then he frowned. "Wait, don't I have an older brother too? I think he's called Viserys."

"Viserys is one of the Kingsguard," Queen Rhaella told him in a voice that sounded like it could barely be spoken. "He has duties elsewhere."

"Oh, okay."

"It's an honor to finally meet you, my prince," Margaery said with a curtsy, smiling at him. In the back of her mind, the wheels began to turn. If she charmed him, he would most likely try to win her hand and the Tyrells would be one step closer to having one of their own as queen. "I hope you have been well all these years, despite the inattention of your mother."

"I've been fine," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "But I probably wouldn't have come to this place if not for the exams."

"Exams?" repeated Daenerys. "Are you here for a test of some kind?"

"Yeah, the Jōnin Exams are being held in Westeros. It's a first."

"I believe that being a Jōnin is the equivalent of a knight for a shinobi," Willas said. "Is that correct?"

He frowned slightly at the thought. "Yeah, I think so."

"You are to be a knight at your age, that is most impressive, Prince Jiraiya," Margaery told him. "Tell me; is it common for men of your age to attain that rank?"

"Nah, I'm just that good."

"Are you bragging again, Jiraiya?" the voice of the regent spoke as she appeared from behind a tree. The first time she had met the Fox Lady, Margaery had been a maiden of nine and she had been filled with envy at the sight of the beautiful woman. Now she was sixteen and still she felt envious.

Lady Naruko had bright golden hair, possibly brighter than any Lannister could have, that fell to the small of her back. She had blue eyes that seemed to shine any time she smiled, laughed, or was thinking of mischief (such as when she locked Margaery's father out of Highgarden). The scars on her cheeks did not disfigure her but rather gave her an exotic appeal. She wore no dress but the clothing she did wear showed that she was both strong and womanly.

"It's not bragging if it's true, Mom," Jiraiya told her. "Please remember that I made Chūnin by the time you graduated from the Academy."

She just smiled at him. "And please don't forget that I can still kick your ass into the ground." She looked at the others there and greeted them all informally, even calling Margaery "Little Hana."

"Your son has grown into a fine young man," Queen Rhaella told the regent with an odd tone to her voice, one that sounded both respectful and saddened. "Aerys would've been proud."

"Aerys would've been driven nuts by his antics," she answered shortly.

"Hey, I'm standing right here," Prince Jiraiya said.

"We know that," his mother said to him, sounding rather dismissive.

"Come now, Lady Naruko, there's no need to be rude to your own son," Margaery told her with a light laugh. Her idea was spread some seeds of discord between mother and son, so it would make charming him all the more easier. "Your highness, might I say you look quite handsome."

"Thanks. I've been told I take after my grandmother in the looks department," he said in reply.

His wording was a little strange but she understood his meaning easily enough. "I must agree with those tales, my prince. I have seen some portraits of your family while King's Landing and I do believe that there is some resemblance between you and Queen Shaera."

Her words were chosen carefully, showing that she praised him and reminded him of his lineage while acting like a young maiden who was interested, perhaps even in love, with him. But instead of getting a response, he looked at his mother and they both sniggered loudly. "What is so funny?" Daenerys asked as they all watched the two continue to snigger.

"Dany, he was talking about _my_ mother, Kushina Uzumaki," Lady Naruko told her and by extension, Margaery.

"Oh, my pardon, Prince Jiraiya," Margaery said, the picture perfect of an embarrassed maiden, cheeks blushing, head bowed and eyes turned away. "I meant no offense." It was a little humiliating to get that wrong, but she had no doubt she would get past it.

"Okay, just stop now. That's getting sad," he told her with a roll of his eyes.

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with confusion. "My prince?" she said.

"Do you think I'm an idiot and that I have no idea what you're doing?" he asked her. "You're trying to seduce me so that you'll marry me. Once there, you'll do your best to convince me that I should be king." He looked over at his mother. "Is amateur hour over now?"

Loras stepped forward, his hand on his sword. "How dare you talk to my sister like that," he said with an angry voice. "You will apologize for your crass words, ser."

"No, I won't. Not when it's the truth."

"You will or I will be forced to challenge you to a duel."

The red-headed Targaryen looked him over in silence. "They call you the Knight of Flowers, right?" he asked, receiving a curt nod of acknowledgement. "Well, in that case, all I'd need to beat you would be a pair of shears."

The members of the royal family tried to hold in their laughter at that comment, with much better success then the regent and her son had. Loras grew angrier at the comment. "I would remind you to tread lightly, ser. For roses have thorns."

"Of course they do," Prince Jiraiya answered. "That's why we invented gloves."

"Loras, stop," Willas told his brother, placing a firm hand on his shoulder before he did anything. Loras wanted to argue but one look at his brother's expression and he took his hand off his sword.

"Little Hana," Lady Naruko said, looking right at Margaery. "Go back and learn a bit more before trying this again. Shinobi have seen better seduction techniques in the first years of the Academy, when they're five."

Margaery was embarrassed by the chastisement and it was even worse when Prince Jiraiya said, "Besides, I'm already seeing someone."

The Fox Lady's attention swung over to him quicker than anyone could blink. "And when were you planning on telling me that you were seeing someone?" she asked, her eyes focusing on his face.

All of a sudden, the confidence he had disappeared. "Um…hopefully never?" he offered. "You haven't been home for a couple of years now, Mom. I can go out with someone without you looking over my shoulder."

If that answer pacified her, it did not show. "Who's the girl?" she demanded. He looked away and muttered something. "I didn't hear you, Jiraiya. Who's the girl?"

"Sarada Uchiha," he answered a little louder.

Margaery did not know that name but it was obvious that the regent did. "Good, I approve," she told her son, before a serious tone entered her voice. "Were you successful?"

"Would I be here if I wasn't?" he asked back.

If someone had spoken like that to Margaery's grandmother or even her father, they would've gotten slapped across the face for such disrespect. But the Fox Lady merely smiled once at her son and turned to look at the royal family. "Rhaella, I actually came here to look for you. I bring news."

"What news?" the queen asked.

"Your grandson is here from the Wall. It will be decided tomorrow." Margaery saw how Princess Rhaenys tensed slightly at those words. The words being spoken were about her younger half-brother, Prince Jon. They had never met but they were both claimants to the Iron Throne. It was beginning to feel like the Dance of the Dragons would come again. "He also brings sad news," Lady Naruko continued. "Your grandfather's brother, Maester Aemon, has passed away. His bones have been brought to King's Landing."

Tears appeared in the Queen's eyes at that news. For a moment, she didn't say anything. Then she said a quiet "Thank you." to the regent.

Lady Naruko only bowed her head. "I am sorry for your loss," she said before leaving quietly, her son by her side.

 **Rhaenys**

(Location: Red Keep)

She stood before the Iron Throne, staring down her younger brother from one side of the room while he stood on the other. Their supporters stood by them. It was odd. She had most of the south for her support, Tywin and Cersei Lannister especially, and yet Tywin's heir stood by her brother, alongside a blonde beauty that managed to put Cersei to shame. The North stood behind her brother as well as a large group of wildings (much to her surprise).

She turned her attention away from the Imp and looked at her brother. She wanted him to be arrogant, to be spoiled, to be rude, to be loud, and to be anything and everything that would lessen his chances of becoming king. But instead, despite his Stark looks, he reminded her of the vague memories she had of her father. It just made her scowl even harder at him.

"One of those kneeler women is giving you an ugly stare, dragon boy," a girl standing next to him remarked loudly. She was covered in furs and had a spear in her head. The only thing worth mentioning about her was her red hair. "What did you do, sleep with her and ran off before she could say anything?"

"That's my older sister, Ygritte," her brother told her.

She would've spoken, had the herald not announced, "The Regent and Protector of the Realm, Lady Naruko Uzumaki!"

All heads swung to the doors as they opened. The first to come through into the hall were the Kingsguard, filled to their proper numbers for the first time in sixteen years. The newest members were Stevron Darklyn and her own uncle, Viserys. Next came Naruko and her son, Jiraiya and behind them were an assortment of foreign people, all from Naruko's homeland. She did not see Naruko's Hand, knowing full well he and his family had left a month before.

The regent walked up towards the throne, only to stop in front of her brother. "Jon," she said in greeting.

"Lady Naruko," he said back.

"Who's this?" she asked, looking at the red head.

"I'm Ygritte," the wilding answered. "And I'm his woman." Whispers and chatter began to fill the air as they all heard what she had said.

Rhaenys would've thought that meant she was her brother's mistress, until Naruko said, "I would've thought that you would be older before you married, Jon."

"It just sort of…happened," he offered weakly. "And I wasn't the only one who got married." He looked pointedly at the Imp as he said those words.

She turned her attention to Lord Tyrion and then at the woman beside him. "How did that happen, Tyrion?" she asked with an amused look on her face.

"What can I say?" he asked the regent. "I wield an axe well and I wield my sword _very_ well."

"Aye, I can believe that," the blonde beauty agreed. "I'm Val," she introduced herself. "Are you this Fox Lady I've been hearing so much about?"

"Most likely," Naruko said with a little smile. She turned away and looked over at Rhaenys, coming up towards her. "I don't suppose you got married when I wasn't looking, did you Rhaenys?" she asked.

"No, Naruko, I didn't," she answered.

"Okay." She continued back to the Iron Throne, ascending the steps until she sat down on it. "Alright, my time as regent of the Seven Kingdoms is done and now I must execute the power Aerys gave me to choose the next ruler of Westeros, as all candidates are now of age. However, since Prince Viserys has joined the Kingsguard, he will not be amongst the candidates and because Princess Daenerys has decided not to put a claim forth, all that are left are Rhaegar's children, his daughter, Rhaenys, and his son, Jon."

She turned to look down at Rhaenys and her brother. They had both stepped forward when their names were said. Naruko snapped her fingers. At the sound, the Kingsguard pulled out seven crowns, one for each member, and held them out for all to see on open hands. Rhaenys knew instantly what those crowns were: they were crowns of previous Targaryen rulers, each and every one of them. The simple bands of Aegon the Conqueror and Aegon III, the ornate and heavy crowns of Aenys and Aegon the Unworthy, the seven-jeweled crown of Jaehaerys the Wise, the flowered crown of Baelor the Blessed, and the iron-pointed crown of Maekar I.

"I have a question for you both," Naruko said to them. "Rhaenys, if you were to become ruler, which crown would you choose?"

All eyes were now on her as they waited for her answer. And she knew which crown she would choose to wear the day she decided to sit the Iron Throne. "I would choose the crown of my ancestor, Aegon the Conqueror," she declared in a loud voice.

"Hmm, not a bad choice," the regent admitted. "What about you, Jon? Which crown would you choose?"

"None," he answered. Rhaenys sneered at him while her supporters just looked at one another in confusion. Why would he refuse to choose a crown? Oddly enough, there was no such confusion from her brother's supporters.

"Why is that?" Naruko asked him.

He looked up at her and only her. "A crown does not make a ruler, a ruler makes a crown," he answered. "I have spoken, fought beside and against, and made peace with the King-beyond-the-Wall. Never once have I seen him wear a crown yet all the Free Folk follow him."

"When did you meet this King, brother?" Rhaenys asked him. "I thought you were tucked safely away in Winterfell to be raised by wolves." Her side laughed at her jape but he did not react.

"I met him when I went to visit the Wall and helped turn back an invasion from the Free Folk. They would've attacked again if I had not stepped forward and made peace with them. They now live south of the Wall in the Gift and fight beside the Night's Watch."

"And how did the King-beyond-the-Wall listen to you when you turned your cloak against him?" Naruko asked.

He bowed his head somewhat in embarrassment. "I overstepped my bounds and used the authority to treat with him as one king would to another."

A hushed gasp came from the people in the crowd, which was silenced when the regent raised her hand. "You are saying that you presented yourself as King of Westeros during these talks, even when you are not," she said, looking straight at Jon.

"Yes."

She turned her head away from him and looked at Rhaenys. "And what have you done, Rhaenys?"

"What do you mean?" She had thought this would be a simple event of who made the better offer, like the kingsmoots of the Iron Islands.

"What have you done to prove yourself worthy of the Iron Throne?"

"My blood and lineage is worth enough," she said confidently. "I have gathered the support of the families in the south. They have all agreed that I am the better choice to be seated upon the Iron Throne."

But the regent did not look impressed. "Rhaenys, while others might judge you on your blood, I judge you on your merit. Now tell me, what have _you_ done to prove yourself worthy of the Iron Throne?"

She was caught off guard by those words. This wasn't going the way she had thought it would be. "Do you not see these people who are standing by me?" she demanded, gesturing back at her supporters.

"Did you earn their support by yourself?" the regent asked her calmly. "Did you go to each and every one of them and talked to them, asking them to lend you their aid? Or did you sit in Sunspear while your family did the hard work, always assuring you that it would work in the end?"

Rhaenys didn't say anything, because that was exactly what had happened. While her uncles had been insuring her support for her bid to the Iron Throne, she had entertained herself with a small court at Sunspear alongside Arianne and the elder of the Sand Snakes. "I thought as much," Naruko said, taking her silence for her answer.

"But I have done things," she protested instantly. "I helped Arianne rule Sunspear and Dorne; I helped negotiate with traders and other houses."

"You helped; you did not do it yourself. Your brother took it upon himself to help out the Night's Watch when he had gone to see the Wall and chose a risky path when he used power belonging to the King of the Seven Kingdoms when discussing peace with the King-beyond-the-Wall. He has changed something that you and the rest of Westeros have always taken for granted and have gone on taking for granted. You sat in high splendor alongside people who wouldn't bother to look at the smallfolk while he fought in the dirt and snow alongside them to keep the country safe."

Rhaenys could not argue against those words because she had no defense. In fact, upon hearing them, she felt quite inadequate but she also felt offended and angry. _"If this was Dorne, this argument would not be happening!"_ she thought to herself. She would be sitting the Iron Throne without any objections.

"I have made my decision," Naruko announced, standing up from the Iron Throne. She went down the steps, took something from her son, and went to Jon. "Jon Targaryen, I ask that you take the seat on the Iron Throne and be King of the Seven Kingdoms."

For a moment, he didn't say anything and for a moment, Rhaenys had hoped that he would refuse. "I accept your offer," he finally answered her in a quiet voice that seemed barely reach the doors.

She smiled and held what was in her hands up for all to see. "I believe this is the sword of the King of the Seven Kingdoms," she said, offering to him.

Rhaenys was not alone in gasping at the sight of the sword, for it was not just any sword. It was Blackfyre, one of the Valyrian steel swords of House Targaryen, thought to be lost in Essos. "Where…how did you find it?" her brother asked, surprised to see it like she was.

Their stranger uncle stepped forward. "When a shinobi is selected for the Jōnin Exams, one of the things he must do is take on a mission with no given information so that he will be able to use his skills to complete it alone. I was given the mission of finding Blackfyre and returning it to Westeros. I tracked it down to the stronghold of the Golden Company and smuggled it out of there," Jiraiya told him.

Jon took the sword from the regent. "Thank you both for your services," he said to them before walking pass them to the Iron Throne. He climbed the steps, reached the top, and sat down on the Iron Throne.

"Hail Jon of the House Targaryen, the First of his name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm!" the Kingsguard shouted aloud, seven voices speaking as one. "Long may he reign!"

"Hail, King Jon!" the people in the hall shouted, even her own supporters. Those in the Seven Kingdoms bent the knee and she was forced to do so as well. She had lost, she would not be queen.

 **Jon**

(Location: King's Landing)

He had once thought that after being north of the Wall, nothing would've been able to surprise him. But after sitting and watching how shinobi fought, he couldn't have been more wrong. He had heard about Lady Naruko's tales of fighting and it seemed that she wasn't the only one who fought like that.

He watched as the shinobi fought each other using weapons, their bodies, illusions, and the very elements themselves. Many a knight had joined this tournament in hopes of winning and earning some glory, but they were all beaten quickly by their shinobi opponents (the one where Ser Loras went up against his own uncle was especially humiliating for the Knight of Flowers).

But even as he watched his own Uncle Jiraiya fight against the woman he had claimed to be courting (not that surprising to him), Jon's mind was filled with many things. He was king now and soon, he would be a father too. His reign would be come after six-and-ten years of relative peace and he hoped to continue them. There would be some (probably more) nobles upset with the fact that he had been chosen instead of Rhaenys and would do something to undermine his reign. He followed the old gods rather than the Seven; no doubt the Faith would have something to say about that. He had made peace with the Free Folk, seeing them as allies and Mance as a fellow king. And he had abolished the laws of succession put down by King Aegon III; replacing it with the Dornish laws of succession (which he thought surprised Rhaenys more than when she was given Dark Sister, which had been kept by Maester Aemon).

"Hey, King Jon, you're looking a bit worried," the man sitting beside him, a brown-haired shinobi with a blue scarf around his neck who called himself Konohamaru, told him with a smile. They were sitting in the stands and not in the royal box. Jon wanted to see what his people would see and this was a good a place as any.

"I have things on my mind," he replied.

"Just leave those for another day and watch the fight. They're here to impress you, especially Jiraiya down there. He had been nervous about meeting the rest of his family since he learned the Jōnin Exams were going to be held here."

In silence, he watched as his half-Targaryen uncle forced the raven-haired woman back with his strangely curved sword. "They both fight well," he remarked.

"I should hope so, I was the one who trained them," Konohamaru told him with pride in his voice. "And they have quite the legend to live up to."

While he didn't understand what the shinobi meant by that concerning the woman, he did understand it with Jiraiya, having known his mother. Apparently, she was a legend in her homeland, so much in fact that the moment she had stepped down from the regency, she had been selected to be the new leader of her village. "If that is the case, I would've thought that Jiraiya would've accepted her offer," he said back, remembering how at the beginning of the tournament, Lady Naruko had told the shinobi that if they wanted to be promoted instantly, all they had to do was beat her in combat. The very few shinobi who did accept were quickly defeated.

But Konohamaru shook his head. "Nah, he tried that once and she beat him soundly. He learned his lesson quickly then. Trust me, the few shinobi who accepted were idiots who thought highly of themselves and lowly of her."

He had seen that kind of behavior before so he wasn't surprised by it. Many of the men of the Watch have looked down on the Free Folk and some still do. He was also certain the people of the south would harbor the same feelings. That was why he made his sister his ambassador to Mance (and to try and keep her away from overthrowing him). "She is powerful, but I think that there are a few people she wouldn't want to face," he said.

"What do you mean by that?" Konohamaru asked.

"She once told me that she would rather go up against Aegon the Conqueror, his sisters, and their dragons alone then fight a pair of men called Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha with an army at her back, especially if they fought together."

"Ah, yeah," he said. "She's talking about the founders of our village and I don't blame her for thinking that."

"Why?" Were those men really that strong?

"I've read some of your history, so let me put it to you this way: Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju could've easily destroyed Dorne just as they could've easily conquered it. When they fought, the land itself usually got rearranged by them."

That was a chilling thought, one that quieted him as the fight continued below them. It was fighting like he had never seen before, including their magic and spells as much as their weapons and their own bodies. And yet, there was a sense of grace to it that no knight could obtain. It almost seemed like a dance. It probably was a dance, since his uncle was supposedly courting the girl.

Dance or not, it soon ended with his uncle winning. The entire stadium, the foreign visitors and the people of the Seven Kingdoms, all stood up and cheered for him. Even the girl he had defeated did not look like she was angry with the fact. She simply got back on her feet, nodded at Jiraiya, and walked away.

And then a strange thing happened. Jiraiya slid his sword home and bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood. He folded his hands into strange gestures and then slammed his hand down on the ground. Black markings appeared on the ground from beneath the hand before they vanished in smoke. The smoke covered the arena. He could people crying out in surprise and fear. But when the smoke cleared, the noise was silent. He did not blame them for he saw what they were seeing. "What is that?"

"That," Konohamaru said with a somber voice, "would be a dragon."

It looked like no dragon he had seen. It looked more a giant serpent with four legs and whiskers on its face. It coiled around the arena walls several times, almost hiding its actual size from them. And yet, there was something majestic about it. Jon wasn't sure if it was the way it floated in the air or how white its scales were, like Ghost. But what was most surprising was Jiraiya. He was kneeling on the ground before the dragon. "Why does he do that?" he asked.

"That's not just any dragon," Konohamaru told him. "That's the King of Dragons. Jiraiya almost lost his life getting the Summoning Contract for them and he knows that one small slip in manners could get him killed."

"You're japing."

He shook his head. "Dragons place a good amount in manners. One amount of lip and the person who gave said lip is liable to be eaten."

The so-called King of Dragons opened his mouth and a deep voice came out from it, speaking the language of the shinobi. Jon knew he was stunned by hearing the creature speaking and he could tell that everyone else who wasn't a shinobi was stunned too. When it was done, Jiraiya spoke. It was a brief reply and the dragon seemed to rumble with what he hoped was laughter.

"What did he say?" he asked.

"He asked Jiraiya had finally brought him what he desired and Jiraiya said yes."

"What does he desire?"

The shinobi frowned. "That, I'm not exactly sure. The king said something about his little cousins, whatever that means."

Jiraiya seemed to know what it meant. He pulled out a scroll and laid it on the ground. Everyone watched in fasciation as he made another gesture with his hand and place it on the writing. More smoke erupted in the arena and when it cleared, five dragon eggs laid on the paper. His uncle stood and stepped back away.

The dragon lowered its giant head to them and opened its mouth. Jon would not say that it roared for what he heard was not something that loud. But the sound was loud to make the seat he was in tremble ever so slightly. If he had to put a word to it, he would say that the King of Dragons breathed.

When it was done, it withdrew its head. Then several sharp cracking sounds echoed in the arena. The eggs began rocking back and forth as cracks-lines appeared on the shells. Then all at once, the shells cracked open and five dragons flopped around in them.

The entire arena bit back a breath at the sight. Dragons, they had just witness five dragons hatch. It was something that should've been impossible and yet, he had just seen it for himself. He came to his feet and watched as his uncle strode to the baby dragons. When they saw him, they swarmed him, climbing up his legs and out onto his outstretched arms and atop his head, screeching their cries into the air.

The King of Dragons looked amused at the sight before vanishing in a veil of smoke. In silence, Jiraiya walked away from the floor. Jon counted the number of the dragons he held. The black one had nestled itself in his hair while the red and the white one hung on his shoulders and the blue and green rested on his arms. There were five and if he did not count himself, his uncle had just helped hatch a dragon for each Targaryen alive.

 **Naruko**

(Location: Sunset Sea)

She watched the Iron Islands slowly disappear from sight. It had been the last place Asha's longship had stopped to resupply. She knew what Balon thought of her but he didn't come down to greet her at the harbor or his children, especially when Theon stepped off to stay. Shows what he knew about family. Then again, he wasn't as bad as Tywin. That man didn't even know what family was. She had been an orphan growing up and she had known more about family then he did.

She kept watching, finding it odd. She had spent twenty four years in Westeros, having first come there in one of the rare trading ships that made the occasional contact with the Elemental Countries. It had made port in the Reach and she had wandered the land for the better half of two years before ending up in Duskendale and working in the Dun Fort. Everything else after that was history.

She turned her head back and up, watching her son with Sasuke's daughter up in the crow's nest. If the truth was told, she was a little surprised at how well Rhaella had accepted Jiraiya. Maybe it was perhaps he carried the Uzumaki name instead of the Targaryen, even when he was certainly dragon enough. Who else would've found the Dragon Summoning Contract and be able to successfully utilize it.

" _You would've been proud of him, Aerys,"_ she thought to herself. She knew that he would be. He would be proud to be the father of such a boy, just like he had been with Rhaegar and Viserys.

She didn't love Aerys, not in that way. She had thought of him as a friend. At first, he had been a voice on the other side of the wall, someone to talk to. Then she was able to pry a stone loose and get into his cell so they could actually see one another. She had truly wanted him to go when Barristan came but he would not leave without her. It just went to show how much of a friend he thought she was.

She stayed his friend, through the good moments and the bad. She tried to make sure that there were more good moments then there were bad but there were times when she missed. But she still stayed by his side and helped him retain his sanity even when others doubted him or tried to pull him down. History would remember him as the Mad King no matter what she did, but she would remember him as a friend.

It was because of that friendship she chose to honor him and rule the Seven Kingdoms as regent. She had done good things in that time but she had also done something that needed to be done.

Sneaking Ino into the Red Keep so she could delve into Viserys's mind and rearrange it so he would want to be in the Kingsguard was one of those things. It wasn't something that she would be proud of but she could see how Viserys was on the verge of becoming mad. While it could be contained, she had been afraid that if she had chosen him to be the next king and the madness got loose there wouldn't be any stopping him.

Killing Walder Frey was another but she didn't feel so guilty about that. That man had to go sooner or later, she just chose sooner. Sneaking into the Rock and insuring that both Tywin and Cersei ended up sterile was something that she regretted but again, it had to be done. She knew how much Tywin hated Tyrion and she would not let him use any excuse he could find to stop his son from inheriting the Rock.

Forcibly separating Lysa Arryn from her son was another thing she regretted. But she saw the way the woman coddled the boy. He was still nursing at her teat when he was four years hold. Something had to be done and she made it happen, knocking out Lysa and then putting her on a ship that was set for the Vale while she sent the boy to Highgarden where Tsunade had been teaching Willas.

She also had Lysa's friend, Petyr, killed. On the surface, he had been clever, kind, genial, and was everyone's friend. But she saw what he was beneath the surface and she would not let him try to destroy what she was holding together just so he could climb higher. It helped that he had an inflated ego that made him think no one recognized what he was. It just made him all the easier to kill and throw the bones into the bay. And these were just five of the things that she had to do that she wasn't proud of.

"Something on your mind, Lady Hokage?" the sound of her teacher's voice reached her ear.

She turned to look at him. "I'm not the Hokage, Lord Sixth," she told Kakashi.

"Yes, of course. We haven't reached the Land of Fire or Konoha yet," he agreed with his typical smile. "But of course, once we get there, there won't be any stopping me from retiring and giving you the burden of Hokage."

She smiled at that. "Well, I've ran a continent for the better part of two decades. I think I can handle it."

They shared a chuckle. She had been told what would happen when she finally came home for good. The other Kage had agreed to it and so did the new daimyo. "So, was something on your mind?" he asked her again.

She looked back at the disappearing Iron Islands. "Just thinking about the time I spent there," she told him. "It's been such a big part of my life."

"It's not like you're leaving there forever, Naruko," he said in reply. "You can still go to visit, just like you did with us. Besides, you yourself said that it was in capable hands now."

"I did." She had said that to Jon and Tyrion, the new king and the new Hand, before she left King's Landing. They would have good advisors to help them along the way. There was also the new trade agreements she hoped to signed between the Land of Fire and Westeros. When the Iron Islands finally faded from sight, she turned away. "Shall we go frighten my son and make him think that we're watching his every move?" she asked him.

"Are we watching his every move?" he asked back.

She laughed. "No, but he doesn't know that. Besides, I already know that he's sleeping with her."

"…You're going to torment him about it, aren't you?"

"Who do you think I am?"

"The Lord of the Pranks," he answered with a straight face.

She smiled widely at him. "That I am." But as they walked towards the mast, the smile faded slightly from her face. She had listened to what Jon and Mance Rayder had to say about what was beyond the Wall that was coming. When she learned that she was to be Hokage, she met with them both swore that if they needed her help, all they had to do was send a message asking for it and they would get it.

And she had a feeling that message would come soon. But when it did, she would come and she would bring the power and might of the shinobi with her.

 **End**

 **Author's note:** Thank you for all the reviews you've sent me.

This is the one-shot idea I had of a Naruto/Asoiaf crossover with a few differences. I had dropped this early in the year but a few people had asked me to write something like this, so I figured I might as well finish it.

The first difference should be obvious, Naruto's gender. The second difference would've been that Naruto would have rescued Cersei after she had been kidnapped. Despite the lack of communication, he manages to figure out that she's from the Westerlands and attempts to bring her there.

On the way, while he's out hunting and gets ambushed by a lion, she's found Rhaegar and the search party for her. While on the way to King's Landing, Naruto follows them, thinking that she's been kidnapped again. When he tries to rescue her, he ends up getting caught. He's taken to the capital to stand trial but with Varys's help, he's able to explain what exactly he was doing and be found innocent.

I would've liked to write that story but it would've been another full-blown story and my hands were already full. So I made a few changes and did a one-short. The original idea would've be something along the same lines of this but more subtle. I'd tell you more, but I still might write it someday. What I can tell you is that Naruto and Cersei would get together and then Sakura would've entered the scene. Using the CRA as a reason, he marries both of them.

I'll see you all in the next story!


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